Avantor - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 2024 revenue was $1.69B (-2.1% YoY; +low-single-digit organic), with adjusted EBITDA of $307.7M (18.2% margin) and adjusted EPS of $0.27; free cash flow was $222.1M, sustaining best-in-class conversion.
• Bioscience Production returned to growth: +3.8% reported (+4.1% organic) with bioprocessing high-single-digit growth; Lab Solutions declined 4.8% reported (-0.9% organic) amid muted seasonality and macro noise.
• Management guided FY2025 to 1–3% organic revenue growth (reported -3% to -1% given ~2% FX and ~2% divestiture headwinds), 18–19% adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted EPS $1.02–$1.10, and FCF $650–$700M; leverage ended 2024 at 3.2x with continued deleveraging priority.
• Stock reaction catalysts: return to organic growth, bioprocess momentum (orders, lead times), visible cost-transformation savings, and deleveraging; potential offsets include lab softness, FX, and electronics/semis headwinds baked into outlook.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Bioprocessing: high single-digit growth in Q4 with strong order intake; lead times 2–3 months translating to real-time revenue; management expects continued gradual recovery in 2025 (“we returned to growth in the fourth quarter”).
  • Margin and EPS execution: adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 18.2% (high end of expectations) and adjusted EPS rose to $0.27; cost transformation ahead of schedule drove savings and leverage on fixed costs.
  • Cash generation and deleveraging: Q4 FCF $222.1M; 2024 FCF $768.3M and conversion “over 110%” for the year; paid down ~$1.3B debt in 2024; adjusted net leverage 3.2x at year-end.

• What Went Wrong

  • Lab Solutions softness: Q4 Lab revenue -4.8% reported (-0.9% organic) as seasonal uptick was muted by macro noise and holiday timing; AOI margin modestly lower YoY (13.1% vs 13.3%).
  • Electronics/semis pressure: sequentially stable in Q4 but a tough YoY comp and no recovery assumed in 2025; remains a smaller piece of the portfolio yet a headwind to the Advanced Technologies sub-vertical.
  • FX and portfolio mix headwinds: 2025 outlook includes ~200 bps FX drag (EUR/USD 1.03 vs 1.08 realized in 2024) and ~40 bps margin dilution from the Clinical Services divestiture; reported revenue guide reflects ~2% divestiture and ~2% FX headwinds.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, everybody, and a warm welcome to Avantor's Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Emily, and I'll be coordinating your call today. After the presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask any questions, which you can do so by pressing Star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the call over to Allison Hosak, Senior Vice President of Global Communications. Ms. Hosak, you may begin your conference.

Allison Hosak (Senior VP of Global Communications)

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Our speakers today are Michael Stubblefield, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brent Jones, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The press release and a presentation accompanying this call are available on our investor relations website at ir.avantorsciences.com. A replay of this webcast will also be made available on our website after the call. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filing. Actual results might differ materially from any forward-looking statements that we make today.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made. We do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or other developments. This call will include a discussion of non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures can be found in the press release and in the supplemental disclosure package on our investor relations website. With that, I will now turn the call over to Michael.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Thank you, Emily, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining us today. We are pleased with the momentum in our business in 2024, including our fourth quarter performance. There were several notable highlights, including exiting the year with high single-digit organic growth in bioprocessing. We'll have a chance to discuss these highlights as we progress through the presentation. Let's turn to slide four, with a quick overview of our financial highlights for the quarter and full year. We returned to growth in the fourth quarter with low single-digit organic growth for the enterprise, a significant milestone that reflects our sustained commercial intensity and continued market recovery. Notably, our bioprocessing business delivered a fourth consecutive quarter of outperformance, with high single-digit organic growth and strong order intake.

We expanded Adjusted EBITDA margin to 18.2%, the highest level in more than a year, driven by improving mix and the ongoing benefits of our multi-year cost transformation initiative. We grew Adjusted earnings per share to $0.27 in the fourth quarter, up 4% sequentially and 8% year over year. Importantly, we continue to drive best-in-class free cash flow conversion, finishing the year with another quarter of exceptional free cash flow. We generated $222 million in the fourth quarter and $768 million for the year, representing more than 110% free cash flow conversion for the full year. Let's now take a closer look at each of our segments. Our Laboratory Solutions segment grew sequentially on an organic basis and continues to show resilience. Our commercial intensity is driving share gains with meaningful new contract wins and expanded customer relationships.

Across our customer base, we are seeing increased engagement, signaling a return to normalcy. The academic end market remains strong, and many of our large pharma customers have worked through their pipeline reprioritization. These customers are now ramping up investment in preclinical activities, supporting a return to growth in 2025. As anticipated, our Bioscience Production segment returned to growth in fourth quarter, with organic growth of over 4%, driven by continued momentum in bioprocessing, which grew high single digits. This strong finish, coupled with a robust order book, supports continued improvement and growth in 2025. As a reminder, our bioprocessing business has leading positions in process chemicals, excipients, and single-use fluid handling. The vast majority of this business is consumable in nature, and our customer-driven innovation model continues to develop products that are inherently sticky.

In addition to our strong operating results this quarter, we made important strides in advancing our long-term growth strategy. We significantly increased our portfolio with the introduction of new products and services. For example, we launched a new services offering to address capacity and space limitation challenges faced by many large pharma and biotech customers. This offering leverages cutting-edge digital tools and generative AI to automate operational tasks, providing virtual assistance to researchers at their lab bench. Already, this solution is supporting a top 10 global pharma client and reinforces our commitment to returning valuable time to scientists. We also introduced the new Masterflex MiniFlex panel mount pumps, further strengthening our fluid handling offering.

In our Total Science Solutions platform, we signed several new third-party supplier agreements, enhancing our portfolio with differentiated technologies, including LGC Standards, a leader in reference materials used across a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, academia, and environmental sciences. With this agreement, there are 15,000 certified reference materials now available to our customers in North America. Quantum-Si, a leader in the protein sequencing space. We are proud to bring their single-molecule next-generation protein sequencing portfolio to market in the U.S. and Canada. Novilytic, an innovator in molecular recognition technology. This is an exclusive global distribution agreement covering their Proteometer platform, which is setting a new standard for efficiency and reliability in drug discovery, clone selection, and more. We continue to hit new milestones in manufacturing capacity and operational excellence.

In the quarter, we completed the installation of a state-of-the-art solutions manufacturing facility in Gliwice, Poland. This expansion positions Avantor to meet the growing demand for outsourced buffer, media, and clean-in-place products in the biopharma end market, resulting in lower costs and increased flexibility for our customers. Additionally, we leveraged advanced automation at our regional distribution center in Bridgeport, New Jersey, to streamline workflows, reduce processing times, and significantly increase order accuracy. I can tell you that the team is extremely focused on growing the business. A few weeks ago, I joined our Americas Sales Conference, which brought together our sales associates in the region for a few days of training. Join us for the meeting where our most strategic suppliers, who spent time showcasing their new products and offerings.

It was energizing to touch and feel some of the new, innovative products that will help us continue to deliver value to our customers. Before turning it over to Brent for a deeper dive into the financials, I want to highlight a few key points as we reflect on 2024 and look ahead to 2025. First, our capital allocation has been primarily focused on bringing our adjusted net leverage comfortably below three times. Between our strong free cash flow and the proceeds from our Clinical Services divestiture, we were able to pay down $1.3 billion of debt in 2024, taking our net leverage down to 3.2 times, a significant reduction from nearly four times at the start of the year. Deleveraging remains our top priority, and we believe that maintaining a capital structure sustainably below three times is optimal for our business.

Once we achieve that, we'll be focused on a balanced, value-driven capital allocation approach. We are entering 2025 with strong momentum and a clear focus on innovation-driven growth, margin expansion, and deleveraging. Our end markets are improving, our new operating model is driving greater efficiency, and our cost transformation program is tracking ahead of schedule. Through a combination of outstanding commercial execution and a continued focus on self-help actions, we are well positioned to make 2025 a year of growth. I'll now turn it over to Brent.

R. Brent Jones (EVP and CFO)

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. I'm starting with the numbers on slide five. Fourth quarter reported revenue was $1.69 billion, taking into account a $40 million impact from the divestiture of our Clinical Services business, which closed in mid-October. Together with the impact of FX, we delivered organic growth of 1%. Sales trends in our Laboratory Solutions segment were stable compared to third quarter. While seasonal impacts were muted, the business continues to show resilience as end markets continue to recover. Within our Bioscience Production segment, bioprocessing outperformed expectations for the fourth straight quarter with high single-digit growth. Adjusted gross profit for the quarter was $564 million, representing a 33.4% adjusted gross margin, which is flat versus third quarter and a modest improvement versus prior year. Our gross profit was impacted by the Clinical Services divestiture, inflation, and negative fixed cost leverage.

However, we were able to partially offset these effects with improved mix and productivity efforts, and we continue to work diligently on reducing our cost base. Adjusted EBITDA was $308 million in fourth quarter, representing an 18.2% margin, which was at the high end of our expectations and a solid improvement sequentially and year over year. This is particularly encouraging given the approximately 40 basis point margin headwind from our Clinical Services divestiture in October. Our cost transformation initiative, which continues to drive meaningful savings, was an important contributor to our margin performance. Adjusted operating income was $279 million at a 16.6% margin, in line with adjusted EBITDA performance and a modest improvement both sequentially and versus prior year. Interest and tax expenses were in line with our expectations. As a result, adjusted earnings per share were $0.27 for the quarter, a $0.01 sequential, and $0.02 year over year improvement.

Our adjusted EPS performance in the quarter reflects the flow-through of our adjusted EBITDA results, as well as continued reductions in net interest expense. Interest expense favorability was driven by incremental debt paydown from the Clinical Services divestiture and outperformance in free cash flow. Moving to cash flow, we generated $222 million in free cash flow in the quarter, which represents a conversion rate of over 115%. Our free cash flow performance was enhanced by continued disciplined working capital and management enabled by the Avantor Business System. In fourth quarter, we paid down over $750 million of debt, and our adjusted net leverage ended the quarter at 3.2 times adjusted EBITDA. As Michael noted earlier, deleveraging remains our top capital allocation priority, and we continue to target adjusted net leverage sustainably below three times.

Turning to the full year results on slide six, reported revenue was $6.78 billion, representing a 2% organic revenue decline versus prior year, in line with the low end of our original guidance. Adjusted gross profit for the year was $2.29 billion, representing a 33.8% adjusted gross margin. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.2 billion in 2024, representing a 17.7% margin at the high end of our guidance range. Adjusted operating income was $1.09 billion at a 16.1% margin. Putting all of this together, adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.99 for the year. Despite the challenging macro environment, we were able to achieve the midpoint of our original EPS guidance. We generated $768 million in free cash flow in 2024, inclusive of approximately $100 million of transformation-related spend.

Excluding the spend, we generated $865 million of adjusted free cash flow, significantly exceeding our original full year guidance range of $600 million-$650 million. For the full year, our free cash flow conversion was over 110%. As I mentioned earlier, we paid down $1.3 billion in debt this year and exited 2024 with adjusted net leverage of 3.2 times Adjusted EBITDA, so we are well on our way to our sub-three times target. Laboratory Solutions revenue was $1.13 billion for the quarter, a decline of 1% versus prior year on an organic basis. Sequentially, sales grew modestly. Encouragingly, we had strong performance in proprietary chemicals and specialty procurement sales, particularly to our biopharma and healthcare customers. However, the customary seasonal increase in activity levels was muted given the macro backdrop and the timing of holidays.

For the full year 2024, Laboratory Solutions revenue was $4.61 billion, a decline of 2% versus 2023 on an organic basis. Adjusted operating income for Laboratory Solutions was $147 million for the quarter, with a 13.1% margin. Adjusted operating income margin increased 20 basis points from third quarter, despite headwinds from our Clinical Services divestiture. This margin expansion was driven by fixed cost leverage from sequential volume growth, as well as continued savings from our cost transformation initiatives. For the full year 2024, Laboratory Solutions adjusted operating income was $598 million, with a 13% margin. Bioscience Production revenue was $561 million in fourth quarter, which represents organic growth of 4% versus prior year and a meaningful sequential acceleration. Bioprocessing, representing about two-thirds of the segment, outperformed expectations once again with high single-digit growth. We also saw another strong quarter of order intake, with orders increasing meaningfully on a sequential basis.

Our silicones offering grew double digits, while electronic materials was stable sequentially, with an expected year-over-year decline. Adjusted operating income for Bioscience Production was $149 million for the quarter, representing a 26.6% margin. On a sequential basis, adjusted operating income was up 120 basis points due to fixed cost leverage from volume growth, as well as favorable mix. With that, I will move to 2025 guidance. Building on Michael's opening remarks, we are entering 2025 well positioned for growth. The implementation of our new operating model, the progress of our cost transformation initiatives, and encouraging trends we are seeing across key end markets, particularly bioprocessing, all give us confidence in forecasting organic revenue growth, continued margin expansion, and double-digit EPS growth in 2025. For the full year, we expect organic revenue growth of 1%-3%.

Our Clinical Services divestiture represents a 2% headwind, and based on current spot rates, we expect another 2% headwind from FX. This leads to a reported revenue decline of negative 3% to negative 1%. This view reflects continued order momentum in bioprocessing, stability in our lab business, and customary contributions from price. On a segment basis, we expect low single-digit organic growth in Lab Solutions and mid-single-digit organic growth in Bioscience Production. Importantly, we also expect bioprocessing to grow mid to high single digits in 2025. Moving to profitability, we expect Adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 18% to approximately 19%, a solid improvement from our 2024 second-half exit rate of 17.9%. This performance is driven by price, favorable mix, and continued execution of our multi-year cost transformation initiative, offset by inflation.

As we've discussed, this is after the impact of the Clinical Services divestiture, which is approximately 40 basis points dilutive to our margins. Our structural cost improvement initiatives are clearly taking hold. We exited 2024 with over $130 million of in-year savings and an exit run rate of approximately $165 million. Thanks to the team's strong focus and execution, our in-year savings were meaningfully higher than our original estimate of $75 million. In 2025, we expect to generate an incremental $75 million of in-year gross savings and intend to exit 2025 with run rate savings in excess of $250 million, well on our way to achieving our goal of a $300 million exit rate in 2026. I would like to address our target to achieve 20% Adjusted EBITDA margins by the end of 2025, or approximately 19.6% when adjusting for the impact of the Clinical Services divestiture.

As we have said, we can make substantial progress towards this target with the self-help impact of our cost transformation initiative. Given our meaningful fixed cost base, we also need continued end market recovery to achieve the target. Encouragingly, we have line of sight to exiting at this rate if we are able to achieve the high end of our revenue range. Continuing down the P&L, our continued strong conversion to cash, together with the proceeds of the Clinical Services divestiture, have accelerated our deleveraging and helped materially reduce interest expense. We expect interest expense to improve in 2025 by roughly $30 million-$40 million year over year, resulting in approximately $180 million-$190 million of interest expense. We anticipate our tax rate will be similar to 2024 at 22.5%.

Our adjusted EPS range is $1.02-$1.10, 10% year over year growth at the midpoint after accounting for the $0.03 impact of our Clinical Services divestiture. This is in line with our long-term algorithm and reflects the strong earnings power of our business. We expect free cash flow performance of $650 million-$700 million prior to any one-time cash expenses associated with our cost savings initiative. While lower than 2024, which benefited from exceptional improvements in working capital performance, this represents approximately 95% conversion of adjusted net income, solidly in line with our entitlement. A few final comments on phasing. In the first quarter, we expect organic revenue for the enterprise to be flat. On a segment basis, we expect Lab Solutions also to be flat, while Bioscience Production will grow modestly, with bioprocessing expected to grow mid to high single digits.

Reported revenue is expected to decline low single digits, and Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be in the low to mid 17th. First quarter is historically the softest quarter of the year for us and our industry. In the first quarter of this year, we are also facing fewer selling days, electronic materials headwinds year over year, and uncertainty due to the macro environment. Our full year guidance contemplates a continued sequential increase in reported and organic revenue dollars each quarter. As is typical, this results in approximately 49% of our revenue in the first half of the year and 51% of our revenue in the second half of the year. We anticipate that our margins will increase each quarter as well, particularly in the second half, as the incremental benefits of pricing, volume growth, and transformation savings are realized.

Lastly, we are modeling interest expense of approximately $50 million in the first quarter. This will continue to trend down each quarter as a result of incremental debt paydown. We believe this guidance is a well-balanced combination of prudence and confidence in the outlook for our business. With that, I will turn the call back to Michael.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Thank you, Brent. Before we jump into Q&A, I want to thank our more than 13,500 associates across the globe for helping us deliver a great 2024. The progress we made this year implementing a new operating model and transforming our cost structure was significant and sets us up for even greater success in 2025 and beyond. With the successful transformation of our business into two complementary segments, aligned with our customers' needs in the lab and production environments, we are better positioned than ever to execute on our growth strategy.

Today, we support more than 300,000 labs around the world in 180 countries and have more than 2,500 on-site service associates working every day in customer labs. Our unparalleled footprint gives us privileged access and important insights into the challenges customers are working on, insights we feed directly into our innovation pipeline. And our access to early phase research and development and design activities allows us to seed our custom proprietary materials into their production processes. We call it our Bioscience Production strategy, and the model really works. Our global footprint has also enabled us to establish a highly resilient supply chain, featuring tremendous flexibility and redundancy built into our sourcing and manufacturing strategies. We plan for a wide range of scenarios, and we know that things can change quickly, so we will continue actively monitoring developments and rapidly make any adjustments as needed.

I am encouraged by our setup for 2025. Our sustained commercial intensity and cost transformation initiative drove sequential momentum throughout 2024. We have a solid plan for the year, and I am confident that we will continue to execute well. We expect a return to organic growth across the business, continued margin expansion, and double-digit EPS growth. We will continue our best-in-class cash generation, accelerating our deleveraging. We delivered on our commitments for 2024, and I expect us to do the same in 2025. I will now turn it over to the operator to begin the question and answer portion of our call.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please do so now by pressing Star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.

If you change your mind or you feel like your question has already been answered, you can press Star and then Two to withdraw yourself from the queue. Please limit yourself to one question to allow everyone a chance to participate, and please ensure your microphone and your device are unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Vijay Kumar with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead, Vijay.

Vijay Kumar (Senior Managing Director)

Michael, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I guess at a high level, when I look at bioprocessing, some pretty good trends here in fourth quarter. What were order trends in the quarter? And when you look at the guidance, mid to high singles, there is a range. When your exit rate is high singles, I'm curious, was there any pull forward of orders ahead of tariffs or any macro uncertainty? Just if you can elaborate on bioprocessing assumptions.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah, good morning, Vijay. Thanks for the question. Yeah, we agree. We had a really strong finish to the year in bioprocessing with high single-digit growth in the quarter, which builds on four consecutive quarters of about performance for us. Nothing really unusual in terms of how that quarter developed. I don't think we have any evidence that there was a significant pull forward. The quarter played out pretty much in line with our expectations. And I would just indicate that the underlying market fundamentals continue to be quite strong. Destocking has largely subsided. Production levels have improved. We continue to see record levels of approvals. So strong order intake, another great quarter there. With two- to three-month lead times, we're seeing that translated to revenue real-time. Our experience in 2024, Vijay, was one of kind of gradual improvement, and that's kind of what we've planned on for 2025.

And we entered the year with good momentum in an order book that sets us up for sustained recovery as we move through the year.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Michael Ryskin with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Michael Ryskin (Managing Director)

Thanks. Just quick one following up on that, Michael, just because you said sustained recovery through the year in BP, but you are guiding to mid-single, high single for the first quarter for bioprocess and mid-single, high single for the full year. So is it just a matter of comps or just some concerns? It was just a clarification question there. But then my actual question is going to be on the margins, Brent. 80 basis points year over year is the guide for 2025, pointing to 18.5 at the midpoint.

But one, you are giving a wide range on the margins, a little bit wider than you have in the past in terms of it's a 100 basis points range. Just curious why that's there. And also thoughts on margins beyond that. I think you talked about you're exiting. You're going to have an excess of $250 million in savings through 2025. $300 million is the goal exiting 2026. So it looks like you're executing on some cost savings faster than you anticipated. Is that just a matter of timing, or is it one of those things where as you're going through the business, you're finding more and more than you thought you would? So maybe there's some upside to that $300 million number for 2026. Thanks.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

All right. Thanks, Michael. I'll do my best here to try to unpack some of that, and we'll let Brent cover your questions on margins.

When I think about our experience to date on bioprocessing, recovery has been incremental, which, as I said before, probably more sustainable. There's great pipelines across all modalities, mAbs, with a lot of exciting things in ADCs and biosimilars. Cell and gene therapy is looking pretty good as well. And look, we're ubiquitous across all these modalities, and we continue to drive high penetration across new therapies, and we continue to put more content on each new molecule. Because I think about the progress here sequentially and moving into 2025, as we've said, first quarter tends to be the low point for the year. And we think mid- to high-single-digit target for that business for the quarter is a prudent place to start. And we would contemplate or expect gradual improvement off of that as we move through the year.

R. Brent Jones (EVP and CFO)

Okay. Hey, Michael, thanks for the question.

You had a few pieces to it there, but on the margin side, look, that's always sort of the art of where the point of that's going to be. We had that range, frankly, we thought round numbers made sense, and we didn't want a sense of false precision there. I mean, I think zeroing in on the midpoint, as you often do there, makes a lot of sense there. This platform does have meaningful fixed costs, and we get real leverage on that. The other thing there, if we get sales at the top end of the range there, you will see us convert even better. So that's the other reason for some breadth to the range there. And you made the comment on the cost savings, which I think both is very fair.

I don't know that it's necessary that we found more, but this place can be very action-oriented. If we've seen opportunities, we've executed against them because it's much better to get the cost savings in an earlier period. I don't think I would call for the program to outperform quite yet, but I think you'll see very strong continued momentum there. So I just think everyone should feel comfortable that we're leaning into that self-help as much as we can.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Dan Brennan with TD Cowen. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Daniel Brennan (Managing Director and Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you. I wanted to ask a question on the lab side of the business.

I know in the prepared remarks you talked about. I think you mentioned macro and holidays, but it was a bit light in the fourth quarter, down 1%. I think you had guided for flat to low single. So just some more color on how the quarter progressed for expectations. And then similarly, if we think about your guidance for 2025, I think you talked about low single. Just would love to find out what are the puts and takes around that low single, and then I have a follow-up.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. Great. Thanks for the question, Dan.

As we think about the context for our lab performance in 2024, we entered the year assuming that 49% of our revenues would come in the first half, 51% would come in the second half, really driven off of kind of a normal seasonality as we move through the end of the year. That's what was implied from the beginning. Based on a more muted seasonal ramp, which was contemplated by the low end of our guide, that's clearly where we fell. Brent mentioned a few factors. Obviously, there's a bit of noise in the macro environment at the moment. We were uncertain, given kind of a midweek holiday there at the end of the year, how that would impact things.

Activity levels were certainly muted as we moved through the last week or two of the year, and there really wasn't much of a budget flush outside of high-end instrumentation, which isn't really a big part of our portfolio. But so I would say the quarter played out generally in line with our original expectations and I think underscores the resiliency of the business. The other thing I would say, Dan, is the quarter for me really highlights just how the model is starting to work again. You see nice margin expansion as mix continues to improve. Certainly, the cost actions are flowing through. We continue to have best-in-class free cash flow conversion, margins at the high end of the guide, delivering on our EPS guidance from the beginning of the year.

So I think there's a lot to like about the quarter here and some good evidence that the model is starting to work again.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Rachel Vatnsdal with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead, Rachel.

Rachel Vatnsdal (VP of Investor Relations)

Perfect. Good morning. Thank you for taking the questions, you guys. So I wanted to ask some questions related to the new administration and policy impacts. You've had a number of your peers call out a certain level of prudence embedded in their guides for risks related to this new administration and potential policy changes. I didn't necessarily hear that in your prepared remarks at all. So can you talk about, have you embedded anything for policy risks into this guidance?

And then along those lines, given some of the headlines we've seen so far to start the year with things like NIH budget freezes and RFK nomination, have you seen any changes in customer behavior related to your academic and government or pharma and biotech customer base?

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks for the questions, Rachel. I think all really relevant topics, of course. A few things on the new administration. I'd just call your attention to the obvious fact it's only been a couple of weeks since they've been in office. It's obviously early days. On one hand, I think we're excited about the overall business environment that this administration is likely to create, which is expected to be more business-friendly and focused on economic growth. Specific to NIH funding, certainly hearing a lot of ideas being discussed, nothing formal yet in terms of funding plans or policies.

As we've said before, we have relatively modest direct exposure to NIH, but of course, particularly in the academic segment, we know that some of our customers do rely on that funding for their programs. But from the language we've seen so far and the areas that are likely to be impacted, it doesn't appear to us that it's areas where we would have significant exposure. And at the end of the day, I think what gives me the confidence here in our outlook for the year is good science continues to get funded. And we'll, of course, continue to monitor the environment and adjust accordingly. But I think net-net, it's hard to predict exactly what all these policies that are being bandied about will ultimately have. But to the extent that it creates a more positive business environment, we would think that would be constructive.

And of course, we'll continue to look to leverage our broad footprint and flexibility to ensure we continue to deliver value to our customers.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Doug Schenkel with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead, Doug.

Madeline Wolfman (Senior Associate at Equity Research)

Hi. This is Madeline on for Doug. It seems like bioscience and bioprocessing in particular have been starting to have a bit of a resurgence. While based on the fourth quarter and also the guidance, the lab business has been more under pressure for both you and peers. If this trend continues and exacerbates, how could that impact margins? And could that be an area of upside for margins versus the guide?

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. I mean, look, going back to the original comments I made to a couple of questions ago, I mean, we do have fixed costs.

And absolutely, if you have less in the lab, we will underabsorb against those fixed costs. I think that that's pretty arithmetic. I think when you look at our guidance, we look at all kinds of scenarios, and I think we've been very prudent about that. But we also got questions about the breadth of the ranges here. If we do see a resurgence there, both that absolutely would allow better conversion. I mean, you see just what a modest increased organic growth does for this business against margins across both sides of it there. And obviously, you come in with higher margins on the bioscience side of it, so it's easier to see those impacts. But even a moderate increase in growth in the lab will be very nice for margins here.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Tycho Peterson with Jefferies. Please go ahead, Tycho. Hey, thanks.

Tycho Peterson (Managing Director)

Want to probe on a couple of things. So academic government down low single digit, but Michael, you did call out academic as strong. Is that K-12? And I think usually that's a 3Q benefit, not a 4Q benefit. So curious about that. And then you flagged share gains for lab. Curious where you're kind of seeing the most in terms of gains. And then lastly, just bioprocess, mid to high single digits consistent with some of your peers, but others are firmly kind of endorsing high single digits. So what's your view on kind of market growth and how much conservatism, I guess, is what everybody's trying to figure out in that mid-single digit, the low end of the range? Thanks.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yep. Thanks for the questions, Tycho. Lots to unpack there.

Starting with our education and government performance, that's been a real bright spot for us throughout the years. I said in my prepared remarks, it can be a bit lumpy. I think you've got the phasing on our K-12 exposure about right. So that piece certainly would have been down sequentially relative to just the normal timing of when those K-12 districts update their curriculum and the materials. But we've had a track record here now over a couple of years of sustained commercial intensity that is clearly leading to our performance in our higher education platform. I think with some of the macro noise and some of the expected changes with the new administration, the government piece was a bit weak in the quarter. But we continue to, I think, be quite confident about the work we're doing on the education side of that business.

Excuse me. When you think about the guide and the outlook for bioprocessing, look, I think I'd say a couple of things. One, we're assuming first quarter is a low point and things will improve from there. Of course, the comps get a little bit more difficult as you move through the year as well. But we view 2025 as a year of continued gradual improvement. We really like the setup for the year, strong order book, strong momentum. I think we're trying to be prudent here out of the gate and just reflect some of the macro environment. And obviously, we'll be pushing to grow that business as fast as we can. But we like the positioning. I like the setup. We had a great finish to the year. I think we're encouraged by where we're at.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Luke Sergott with Barclays. Please go ahead, Luke.

Luke Sergott (Director of Healthcare Equity Research)

Great. Thanks, guys. Just kind of following up on what everybody's trying to figure out is starting the year slower than what was expected. And then so it implies another pretty sequential impressive ramp throughout the year, bioprocessing, maintaining your growth. And so as you look across the rest of the book, what is going to get better? And what's the visibility on that, especially as you think about U.S. semis and the government funding, etc., with labs?

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. A couple of things. One, I'd reiterate kind of the phasing that we've implied in our guidance today, which is typical for our business. 49% of our revenue in the first half, 51% of our revenues in the second half. So not a lot of ramp here implied in our numbers.

I think from a bioprocessing standpoint, we see mid-single digit growth to high single digit growth in the first quarter as well on a full-year basis, which given that comps improve or get more challenging as we move through the year, that just reflects good steady improvement from that end market as things continue to normalize. In the lab business, we've contemplated relatively stable end market conditions, not really expecting or needing any heroics to occur there for us to deliver on our guide with an assumption that we'll realize normal contributions from price, and that phases in, as we talked about in previous years, as we move through the first quarter and should be in place fully by the time that we get into the second quarter, so those are some of the puts and takes, Luke, on how I think about the setup for the year.

So hopefully that's helpful to you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Patrick Donnelly with Citi. Patrick, please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Patrick Donnelly (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe to follow up a little bit on Luke there, I know he touched on the semi piece. Can you guys just kind of expand a little bit on what you saw in the quarter broadly in advanced technologies? I know the semi piece jumped out last quarter and bit the margins a little bit. Just the outlook on that part of the business as we work our way through the year, impact to margins would be helpful. Thank you, guys.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yep. Good question, Patrick. Firstly, just remind the group here that semis is a relatively small part of our overall BPS segment.

And as we talked about it in the third quarter, the conditions in that end market, particularly with some of the larger customers here in the U.S., deteriorated pretty meaningfully in third quarter. And our fourth quarter plan was assuming that things would be relatively stable sequentially, which is how the quarter played out. So it wasn't an incremental headwind on a sequential basis to us. And as we think about what's factored into the guide for 2025, we've assumed that things will stay relatively stable at the levels that we saw in the second half of this year. So we'll not be baking in any recovery into that end market. It'll be a pretty meaningful headwind to us in first quarter. That was the high point of that market for the year. So we've got a pretty tough comp for our semis business there.

That's also part of what we've contemplated in our guide there that offsets the good momentum on our NuSil platform and our bioprocessing platform. But we continue to stay close to our customers. I think we're encouraged to see that things have stabilized a bit here, but not really anticipating any recovery as we move through the year. Hey, Patrick, I just add on. You had a piece about margins in connection with semis there. When we had commentary last quarter, that was more about a surprise versus where that went. But when you think about what the setup for 2025 is here and what that means, with this level of bioprocessing growth, with this level of bioscience growth, that will definitely have us mixing up. You can see that into the margin guide.

So just wanted to be clear that you don't see the comments on electronic materials there as problematic to margin in the year. It's absolutely baked into our expectations.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Tejas Savant with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Tejas Savant (Life Science & Diagnostic Tools Research Analyst)

Hey, guys. Good morning. And thanks for taking the time here. Brent, a couple of quick cleanups on the guide for you. Can you just remind us of how the 200 basis points FX headwind in the top line impacts EBITDA and then the EPS line? And second, bioprocessing, a lot of questions here. But Michael, can you confirm that in steady state, you still expect that to be a double-digit grower for you? And then lastly, on M&A, you guys have been pretty cautious on sort of reprioritizing that. Brent, you mentioned cost-outs and debt paydowns.

That said, a lot of your peers are opportunistically dusting off their M&A playbooks given a more benign regulatory backdrop and a decent rate environment. And you don't want to presumably sort of miss the boat, so to speak, on the pick of the litter among the assets out there. So could we see you sort of revisit that strategy a little bit sooner than you've indicated recently? Thank you.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

So here, real quick on the modeling cleanups there, Tejas. So we're more than 50% U.S. dollar in our business, but we have significant exposure to the euro. So you'll see in the footnotes on the page there that we're modeling based off a euro/dollar of 1.03. Now, what we realized in 2024 was 1.08. So that's what, on the math basis, gets you to about a 2% headwind. So that's kind of $135 million of revenue.

As that rolls down, that'd be approximately 25 million of EBITDA, 3 cents of EPS. So that's the FX modeling impact. And then Tejas, I think to sort of clean up your other two questions you had, firstly on bioprocessing, yeah, I think our conviction level on double-digit growth for that platform is still fully intact. As we highlighted at a recent conference here earlier in the year, we like, of course, the positioning that we have today with more than 85% penetration of the commercialized platforms. And as we look ahead, we see that growing to over 90%, including five of the five top blockbusters. So very, very strong positioning. Our innovation engine is hitting on all cylinders there. And we continue to have strong conviction on how that end market will play out for us over the long term. From an M&A standpoint, good question.

Obviously, we've been squarely focused on paying down debt. We've paid down well over $2 billion over the last couple of years. And our leverage stands at 3.2 times as we enter 2025. So we'll definitely get below three times at some point this year. And as we said in our prepared remarks, at that point, we'll certainly have some flexibility here. As it relates to M&A, that remains an important part of our long-term playbook. And we continue to be active in building our pipelines and linking those pipelines to our business strategies. And I think we have some clear areas of focus where we think we can add significant value over time. But I would reiterate that we are committed to running the business sustainably below three times.

And so I think you'll see us be prudent here as we work through this transition into a more flexible allocation policy.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Connor McNamara with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Connor McNamara (Head of Investor Relations)

Great. Thanks for taking the question, guys. Michael, you talked about the new distribution agreements at the start of the call. Can you just talk about the impact of those agreements to your overall third-party business? And if that business is down in the quarter and the year, how should we think about longer term when that returns to the growth? And then just are these new agreements marginally accretive to the third-party business?

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. Really great questions, Connor. Thanks for bringing that up. So as we think about the setup for our lab business for the year, we're anticipating low single-digit growth for that platform in 2025.

So we're certainly looking forward to returning that to organic growth. Our algorithm, our long-term growth algorithm, contemplates that business being low to mid-single digit growth. So certainly, we're starting to get into that envelope where things are certainly normalizing. And one of the important attributes on how you grow that business, of course, is ensuring that you have the right portfolio to bring differentiated technologies to your customers to help them solve their most current challenges. And so we have a very, very vibrant innovation portfolio. And that includes the work we do in our own R&D centers and bringing those technologies into the market. But of course, an important part of the model is working with the supplier community to help them bring their innovations to the market.

And so really, we're just trying to highlight for you today some of the more notable milestones in that regard in the quarter. And each one of these is somewhat incremental in nature. And we would, on average, launch roughly 100,000 new products a year, Connor. And so you can kind of get a sense there for how important this is to our business. And I think it is just another good data point that shows the focus that our new operating model is bringing us and the setup that we have going into the year. So with some of these new technologies, new supplier arrangements together with the impact of pricing, we are looking forward to having that platform grow again for us here as we move into 2025.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Matthew Sykes with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Evie Koslosky (Global Investment Research Associate)

Hi. This is Evie on for Matt.

Thanks for taking my questions. So understand there is a more muted impact seasonally in 4Q. But can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of large pharma versus emerging biotech customer cohorts? And then any puts and takes you could provide there.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. Happy to. So I think it's going to be a tale of two cities, if you will, there. We are rather encouraged by what we're seeing out of large pharma. There's been quite some notable headwinds there on preclinical activities as they've been reprioritizing pipelines and working through a number of adjustments to their spend and such. And now for a couple of quarters in a row, we're starting to see large pharma return to growth.

And we actually had a pretty nice quarter with large pharma in our lab business and seeing across that space, both in Europe as well as in the Americas, a nice return to growth there. On the other end of the spectrum, of course, is the biotech activities. And we know that on a year-over-year basis, biotech funding was up. But that probably doesn't tell the whole story. It took a pretty meaningful jump in first quarter of last year, and it fell sequentially each and every quarter through the end of the year. And so activity levels there continue to be a bit bifurcated. We see some of the more established biotechs doing okay and growing. But the traditional startup, we're not seeing the same level of activity there as what we would normally expect. So that continues to be a bit of a headwind for us.

But we are encouraged by some of the activity levels we're seeing across the space, particularly and notably the momentum we're seeing with large pharma pickup again.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Brandon Couillard with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead, Brandon.

Brandon Couillard (Senior Life Science Tools & Diagnostics Analyst)

Thanks. Good morning. Brent, just a clarification. I think you mentioned fewer selling days in the first quarter. Is that down sequentially as well? Could you just quantify the contribution and the impact relative to the latter organic guide? And are there any other variances to be aware of as we move through the year?

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

On first quarter, that's down year-over-year. It's not down sequentially there. But certainly, that does have an impact. I'm not aware of the full year figure there. But no, I think when you think about the first quarter setup there, again, we're talking about lab being stable.

We recognize there's the other noise out here, but there are always puts and takes in the business there. And then you blend that with bioscience being up mid there and, I'm sorry, bioprocess mid to high. And just we're being cautious about the quarter. And I don't think that makes us an outlier with what you're hearing from other people there. Caution on first quarter.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Jack Meehan with Nephron Research. Please go ahead, Jack.

Jack Meehan (Partner)

Thank you. And good morning. Two quick follow-ups. One was just on the model for Brent. Interest expense $50 million in the fourth quarter. Was there anything one time in the $45 million in 4Q, or why would it step up sequentially? And then for Michael, just any comments on the education market, which declined low single digits in the quarter?

Was that just seasonal factors with the holidays or something else that you were seeing there? Thank you.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah, Jack, there's a little bit of accounting in the interest expense there with unamortized fees going through. And we also do have a decent amount of euro debt. So you have FX running through it there. And our guide to the year is 180-190 there. So 50, when you have deleveraging throughout the year there, that's just sort of kind of dollar-cost averaged down for the year. And then, Jack, your question on education. I think I shared some thoughts on this earlier. But just to reiterate, we continue to be very satisfied with the share gains we're driving in the higher ed space. We're probably seven or eight quarters into that trend driven off of our sustained commercial intensity there.

And we also had a, I would note, some really meaningful share gains on the biopharma side of things as well in the quarter. A couple of things to note in 4Q. The K-12 exposure that we have is a little bit more muted in the quarter, particularly as you move sequentially, just given how the districts manage their curriculum updates and such. The government piece was somewhat muted, presumably owing to some of the uncertainty associated with the administration change. But the higher ed piece continues to be a bright spot for us. And we would anticipate that momentum continuing into 2025.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Those are all the questions we have time for today. I will now turn the call back over to Michael for closing comments.

Michael Stubblefield (President and CEO)

Yeah. Thank you. And certainly appreciate you all joining us today.

Just would reiterate some of our key messages here as we turn to 2025. We are encouraged by our expectations of returning the platform to growth. We're anticipating continued momentum in leadership in bioprocessing, another year of strong margin performance, and leveraging our Avantor Business System. You should expect continued discipline and execution around our free cash flow generation. I think our guide at the midpoint here of double-digit EPS growth is quite notable, and I think we're encouraged that we see our model working again and markets starting to cooperate again. So again, appreciate you joining us today. Certainly look forward to updating you when we meet next. Until then, be well, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This concludes our call, and you may now disconnect your lines.