Blau Farmaceutica SA

BOVESPA:BLAU3

Earnings Call Analysis

Substantial Investment Amid Challenges Boosts Blau's Results

Blau Pharmaceuticals, despite a challenging year marked by high interest rates and regulatory pressures, concluded 2023 with significant strategic investments surpassing BRL 670 million. The firm bolstered its position in Latin America through acquisitions like Bergamo Lab and expanding production. It reported a net revenue of BRL 1.4 billion, with a net income of BRL 247 million achieving an 18% net margin. Moreover, the international expansion included standout growth for Porthya, boasting a revenue increase of over 30% at EUR 300 million. The gross margin for the year settled at 36%. Investment in R&D was substantial, accounting for 11% of net revenue, laying the groundwork for a strong growth trajectory from 2023 onwards.

Strategic Investments Drive Growth Amid Challenges

In 2023, Blau Pharmaceuticals strategically invested over BRL 670 million to consolidate its leadership in Latin America's institutional market. With expanded production capacity, partnerships in R&D, and geographic growth, the company navigated a complex landscape marked by a new government, high-interest rates, and a deregulated post-pandemic market. Despite these headwinds, they achieved net revenue of BRL 1.4 billion and net income of BRL 247 million, equating to an impressive net margin of 18%. Their financial resilience, bolstered by a low-debt, cash-generating business model, was key to withstanding the turbulent year.

Strides in Revenue, ESG, and Market Share

Blau Pharmaceuticals celebrated major milestones, such as launching five new products with a potential market of BRL 220 million and expanding international business, which grew over 70% from the previous year. The company's commitment to ESG was evident with over 57% of employees being women, including 45% in leadership roles. Their newly acquired Bergamo lab, facing initial integration hurdles, is expected to yield positive margins going forward. Furthermore, Blau's products launched in recent years have attained remarkable market shares, reinforcing their market dominance.

Financial Solidity Despite Market Pressures

The company reported all-time high quarterly revenue of BRL 387 million, up 7% from the previous quarter. Notably, gross profit improved by 8% and EBITDA by 16%, despite financial pressure from industry-wide price wars. Thankfully, these pressures stabilized, and the company is expected to deliver enhanced results through operational efficiencies and renegotiated supplier contracts, reducing the need for high stock levels which had been a defensive strategy during the pandemic.

Public Bidding and Legal Hurdles

Blau Pharmaceuticals faced challenges with public bids, such as those involving Alfa products and immunoglobulin. Court recommendations, regulatory changes, and intense market debate over non-licensed products contributed to a complex environment. Despite this, Blau remains confident that resolutions favoring regulated market investments will prevail, which is crucial for maintaining the supply of drugs and the industry's integrity.

Competitive Edge and Forecasted Cash Flows

Blau has maintained a strong market position, particularly in oncology, demonstrated by winning a bid over an unregulated Chinese company. This victory underscores their competitive pricing and local production advantages. Looking ahead, the company anticipates increased cash generation, enabling them to pursue strategic projects like the P1000 factory without compromising their leverage. The timeline for these investments has been adjusted, reflecting a careful approach to expansion and capacity building.

A New Growth Cycle on the Horizon

Looking towards 2024, Blau Pharmaceuticals is set to begin a new growth cycle, driven by the prior year's investments and revenue diversification including synergies from the Bergamo acquisition. The company expects continued operational improvements and a transformative impact from Prothya, which generated over EUR 315 million in revenue. Blau's focus remains on strategic vertical integration, capacity expansion, and the launch of four monoclonal antibodies, which promise to elevate the company's growth trajectory and stakeholder returns.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Bruna Gamboa, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Blau Pharmaceuticals Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. We are live with Marcelo Hahn, the Founder and CEO; Douglas Rodrigues, our CFO; and with me Bruna Gamboa, IR. Our call is taking place in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English and the webcast is being recorded and will be available on the company's website. Now I'll pass the floor to Marcelo to begin the presentation.

[Marcelo Hahn, executive]

Thank you, Bruna. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call. On Slide 2, I want to highlight that in 2023, we recorded a relevant investment that exceeded BRL 670 million. We work to accelerate the company's strategic growth pillars guided by our vision of consolidating ourselves as a leading company in the institutional market in Latin America.

Through the expansion of our production capacity, the verticalization of the production chain, our R&D partnerships and our geographic expansion at Latin America. We are firm in the execution of our strategic plan despite an atypical and challenging year with a scenario of a new government, high interest rates, credit restrictions, pressure on the health sector, especially on paying sources and payers and a deregulated market in the post pandemic world and the persistence of the Ministry of Health to force the Ministry of Health to acquiring medicine without [ medication ] registrations with ANVISA supply SUS. From a results perspective, we were able to offset these challenges with an increase in production capacity, longevity medicine medications, the acquisition of the Bergamo Lab and the extension of Blau's International business resulting in net revenue of BRL 1.4 billion and net income of BRL 247 million and a net margin of 18%, even in a very troubled year.

This was only possible because of our solid financial position with low debt and a cash generating business. supported by the solid fundamentals of the pharmaceutical sector in Brazil and worldwide, a robust, resilient and ease that is essential in people's lives. These initiatives led to an evolution of the results in 2023. And we also had an important agenda focused on improvements and integration of policies and processes with Bergamo. We had the expansion of our mottos and Latin America.

We also had an intense agenda to renegotiate with our suppliers, and we're able to have significant reductions in unit costs. To provide more details about these investments that we mentioned with the expansion capacity we want to highlight the opening of our specialty spot P210, which contributed to the earnings in the company from April 2023 onwards and has been maturing quickly. We started occupying all the production lines at Blau Goiás, which also began to contribute to the results in 2023, more than doubling the capacity of this factory and productivity improvements in Blau Sao Paulo's lines and the inclusion of our manufacturing plant in the Bergamo lab.

And sub-acquisitions and expansions. I want to highlight the acquisition of the Bergamo lab in June with -- along with Blau [indiscernible] one of the biggest production centers and one of the biggest [indiscernible] Hemarus portfolios in Brazil. From an internationalization perspective, -- we're really excited with Porthya's evolution. Since we announced this investment, Porthya's information has been still in this process of being audited, but we can already let you know that in 2023, the company had an all-time high revenue of over EUR 300 million, a growth of over 30% compared to '22. This operation is also really important because it's going to open up the European market to certain Blau products. There's a lot of synergy with our plasma collection centers in the United States and will bring important hard currency revenue sources to the company.

We also continued the expansion of our Hemarus in the United States and Hemarus began our plasma collection center in the north of Miami, and we began to export to our fits in Latin America. We acquired a share of 20% in the collection of Centro Hemarus in Jacksonville. And the revenues coming from Hemarus grew over 70% compared to '22. The international expansion in Latin America and our subsidiaries, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay. And the objective is to really structure the operation and we had BRL 91 million of revenue. For R&D, we had an investment that I had never seen before of BRL 148 million about 11% of our net revenue, and it's going to be one of the main levers for growth cycle in '23 -- from '23 onwards. In 2022, we began the production -- commercialization of five new products with an addressable market of BRL 220 million, which is a fraction of the BRL 7 billion in opportunities in our pipeline.

We also consider the four monoclonal antibodies considering addressable market over $42 billion around the world and this should be captured from 2022 onwards. We also continue to advance with our product serve APIs and we are working with this strategic verticalization of our production. And about ESG, I want to say that I'm really proud of the products we had throughout the year. We released our second Annual Sustainability Report -- and following the IR indicators, we also began preparing the third report. We've set the pillars for ESG in the company, which are access, innovation and education. We also supported sports in different institutions that are in line with our purpose. And we also performed the first diversity center with workshops for all leadership.

Today, 57% of the [ Blau ] are women. And when we look at the leadership positions, the rate is 45% women. So we want to pass the floor into Bruna. She continues with the presentation.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. Thank you, Marcelo. Now we want to mention Slide 3, considering our pipeline of products, and so it's important to mention that we presented some preliminary information. The dates presented are estimates of the company since the records of registrations of these drugs depend on regulators that could lead to modifications that accelerate or delay the launch of these products.

So as mentioned by Marcelo in '23, we launched five new products in Brazil with an addressable market of about BRL 200 million. And frankly, two were launched in the fourth quarter. In 2023, we also performed getting ANVISA medication registrations and we also achieved the approval of 15 new drugs with ANVISA [ 17 ] in Latin America. So as you can see on the right side of our graph every quarter, Blau increased share of new products in its results, which represent about 10% of the net revenue in '23.

We're also super happy to report that at the end of '23, the products we launched in '21 had already reached an average market share of 35%. And the medication launched by Blau in '22 reach an average market share of 12% on average, and the products we launched in '23 had already reached a market share of 4%. We are going to start talking about the financial results. We also reached an all-time high net revenue in our quarter with a growth of 7% compared to the third quarter of 2023. The other indicators like the gross profit, EBITDA and net income also advanced with a growth of 8%, 16% and 24%, respectively. So when we look at the performance we had important investments of BRL 670 billion despite the challenging year, which also impacted the margins in the period.

It's also important to mention that these investments were only possible because of our financial solidity, strong balance sheet and low leverage. Moving on to Slide 5. When we talk about the net revenue, we reached an all-time high of BRL 387 million in our quarterly revenue with an increase of 7% quarter-over-quarter, which indicates stabilization in the prices with an increase in revenue coming from Bergamo and driven by the specialties. In '23, we were also able to offset the challenges that we mentioned with new sources of revenue, such as the launch of new products, acquisition of the Bergamo lab and expansion of Blau's International business, resulting in a net revenue at the same level as in '22 that we reported. Now I want to pass the floor to Douglas, our CFO, and he's going to continue with the presentation.

[Douglas Rodrigues, executive]

Thank you, Bruna. Good morning, everyone. Well, guys, moving on here, we want to show a little more details on our financial performance in the last quarter and closing of the year. Bruna's already mentioned the main highlights of our performance, especially the factors mentioned in the third quarter that were present in the fourth quarter of the company as well. But it's important to consider the evolution of these indicators in the last quarter compared to the previous quarter. demonstrating the advances of our plan.

So here with the gross profit, we had an improvement of the indicator by 8% compared to the previous quarter, reaching a margin about 31% and we'll close the year with 36%. So when we look at this full year, we basically have a first half that had a margin of about 42% and a second semester of 31% which is why we had this result of 36%. When we compare with the other years, it's natural that we'll have a setback in the gross margin. But when you look at 2023, it's really important to highlight the year started off with a credit scenario that was very complicated. So the health sector was more pressured and in this more competitive scenario. From the internal aspect, the company incorporated Bergamo lab, which is still an operation that's still in an optimization phase with a huge potential for contribution and also margins.

And everyone knows also that we still have operations with our revenue sources and new initiatives don't have the same level of contribution to the gross margin. And the rest of the business -- the rest of the more consolidated business. So that's why it's natural that we see a margin of about 36% for the year of 2023. Considering this entire context level of margin, it's relatively satisfactory if we consider that this is a starting point for this new cycle in the company.

So I think this is what's the most important to highlight with the gross margin here. And then we'll move on with the optimization of the Bergamo operation, having a stock to over because the cost advertisement is smaller than the inventory cost and other initiatives as well to gain this kind of efficiency in our gross margin.

Moving on to the next slide. We are talking about our expenses. So the expenses in the quarter at the same level of the previous quarter. And I want to highlight the growth of the revenue. So you can see that this effect of the greater level of revenue in this quarter already contributes to the dilution of over 1 percentage points in our operational expenses. So this is a path -- this is the message really the company continues on this path. It's natural tthe company prepared with a new internal structure and many different initiatives to be able to consider the strategic plan. And as we have the revenue incorporated in these new sources, operational leverage will appear.

So 2023 is a year where we're still starting off. We have this new structure, but Brazil ramping up with the new operations and the revenue. So that's when we should highlight that in this level, your revenue in 2023, we have another 3% of this revenue -- sorry, this expense that is related to R&D. We had a impact last year of bad debt due to the credit scenario that was quite complex that year, and it was a bit more stressed. So moving on to the next slide, we're going to talk about our EBITDA, Bruna has already mentioned it quickly, but the EBITDA in the last quarter versus the third quarter, had an evolution of about 16% and the growth. This is a recurring EBITDA in the company.

So basically, you only have the effects of the gross margin and the operational leverage, the expense already mentioned previously. And when we look at the EBITDA, considering the effect of the purchase, we consider advantages purchases we reach a rate of about 27% margin. So I think that we need to look at '23 as a starting point of this new cycle in the company.

Next slide, now we're going into our net income. So besides all of the effects we already highlighted before, basically, we have this financial result, which is related to the cash variation in the company in 2023. And the effect of the income tax. So '23 basically all of our income tax is deferred. So we don't have this current effect and most of this amount that's deferred is related to the purchase of Bergamo. So that's why it's important to highlight that the advent that the strategic plan of the company does not consider the incorporation of Bergamo in the short term. So this effect will not be materialized even though it was deferred considering the acquisition.

So once again, 24% evolution in the last quarter. And we closed the year considering the effect of this acquisition with a net margin, net income of 18%, which is once again to highlight this -- which took place in the year '28, which was very solid. And so moving on to the next slide. When we get into the balance sheet of the company, when we look at the working capital and the CapEx, you have the same level we're operating about -- compared to the net revenue about 59%. And when we look at the average deadline for the payment and receipt basically stabilized.

The company continues to search for opportunities for negotiations to improve this event. But in the market reality, these are the indicators currently and any kind of improvement in this would involve a release in the cash position, the company continues to keep up with this objective.

So when we look at the stocks, this is a big important point. We haven't had this level ever since the first quarter of '22, but then you'll be able to see that when you look at the financial statements of the company, the effect of the controlling company and the consolidated effects as well -- we still have a lot of operations that we have opportunities to optimize a lot. But of course, actually, we will continue to release working capital, which is super important, but there's already a positive effect of this acceleration in our stock turnover rates. When we look at the CapEx, basically, from intangibles, we consider an investment about BRL 104 million per year, 7.5% of the revenue at a level that's very much in line with what the company should follow.

So when we look at results -- 2% to 3% for revenue and the balance sheet of about 6% to 7% of revenue, which had an investment of 7.5% last year. and the CapEx of fixed assets, which would be about BRL 120 million which basically considered P210 and an important advance in the expansion of our capacity in all of our operations in Brazil and especially in our operations internationally.

So this once again is a level that we expect for the next years for our cash production effect. So moving on here on the next last slide before I move on to our Q&A. I think this is a super important slide when it comes to our results and financial performance. So considering the context in 2023 and the results that are possibly a little more pressured in a more challenging scenario and the level of investments that is very relevant. The company is once again demonstrating its robustness financially, and we're basically closing the year without a leverage position.

So now we used to be net cash, but now [indiscernible] and basically a long-term debt and a financial cost that is extremely attractive. So I think this demonstrates that the company is very responsible when it comes to performing its strategic plan. There's still room, of course, to keep up with this, and we're very well prepared and positioned to maintain this investment plan, which is super important for this next cycle. But this also demonstrates that basically -- the company is basically a single case. And both of them will start this with the considerations, and then Marcelo will come back to this final comments.

[Operator]

So our first question -- So the first question is from Filipie Mansu, Itaú Corretora.

[Unknown Analyst]

Well, great one. Thanks for taking my questions. So first of all, here in Bergamo, could you give us an update on the ramp-up and the integration of the company. We noticed that even with Bergamo increasing its share at a sequential level, the gross margin was pretty much flat. And I want to know if you guys already start noticing some kind of synergy capturing, please?

And the second question is on the working capital. We noticed that there's been a slight worsening in the days of receivables and an improvement in the stock base. So from the receivables, I wanted to know if you guys already see some relief coming from your customers and also from the stock side. What do you guys think is still the possible room for improvement in this slide?

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks for the question. We'll start off here with the first answer on the days of our receivables. The market is competitive. So the competition is providing better terms and the company has to adjust to this. So the payers have a lot of pressure in hospitals. And then of course, they pressure the distributors. And consequently, we have to support our distributors and partners, and we have to continue this journey at expanding our presence with our customers.

And with this, we -- another important factor is that we also have been increasing our values of receivables among our customers because since our portfolio is growing, we have stronger presence to these customers. So the amount of customers doesn't really grow at the same rate as our portfolio, right? So we're adding -- we've been adding a lot of products in the market. These are products that have added value that's pretty high, and we've had higher share.

So with this, we're also forced to provide better payment terms within a market reality currently because eventually with this term, considering the credit crisis last year, et cetera that you'd work within this level currently. Another question also about the Bergamo synergies. While we considered a company that had recurring losses. So that's we had a specific type of acquisition. But because of this, we suffered -- in the first semester, when we took over the company, which is the third and fourth quarter.

Last year, we were able to really capture this kind of situation of the losses suffered by the company. And besides this, the company didn't prepare because the former shareholder of the company really create like a spin-off process in the company. So we had all these shares of service and expenses with the former shareholder when it comes to IT, administrative, aspects, logistics. So we had this high cost of expenses. So it's important to highlight that despite these results in the company, you had taking place and being kind of hindered by this acquisition. But in the same way as the results of the company were also hindered, right?

So with these investments that the company has been working on with the organic growth in Latin America and Ameris, which also still bring negative results to the company. So it's really important to investors, sell side analysts, et cetera, can understand that the company can deliver results that are really unique cases. So our results could be a lot higher, of course, if we considered all of these nonrecurring expenses in the future in our business.

Well, I think when it comes to Bergamo specific case, and we bring this into our base for the 1st of June. In the first semester, we were still operating with the structure that was very shared within the environment. So now in the first of January, we already started including this into our base, and we've been operating this within our systems, all of the processes we already had and now is when we actually start capturing the synergies and really leverage the operation, and we stop having negative margins and start having positive margins. Yes. So we still have a Bergamo maturity stage really Exactly.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. Thank you, Filipe. Now we're going to move on to the question from Leandro Bastos at Citi.

[Leandro Bastos, analyst]

Well, we have two points here on our side. First, could you talk about the overall public bids for the acquisition of Alfa and the share of these products without the records and the registration. So -- could you explain a little bit of an update on this and what your perspectives are towards this matter with these non-licensed products participating in the public bids? That's the first.

But the second point is more like on the specialty side. We see that you mentioned prices that are a little more stable. So if you could just give us an update on the competitive scenario, how you've been looking at this in the beginning of '24?

[Marcelo Hahn, executive]

Thanks for the question. So let's start off with the answers. When it comes to pressure in the prices, as you mentioned, we went through the year of '23 with pressures and prices are quite significant. And we had atypical classification. We had really high stocks. So we noticed that this situation was most impacted in the company's results due to the situation. As we started distributing these stocks at prices that are cheaper, which is what we mentioned in my part of the presentation, we start seeing results of this inversion. So we start having a ramp-up of an improved result.

So last year, we had this price pressure, but this pressure is already stabilized. And we can see that the -- that there are improvements with these new stocks, the new acquisitions, the company has been working on, and we had important renegotiations with our suppliers. So we've been able to achieve better results. And this is a situation from now on. And now the company doesn't really need to keep such high stocks. And so what was a prior policy to keep high stocks to not have a lack in the market due to the pandemic with logistical challenges and the lockdowns, then we eliminated the situation now. So the company has a lot more comfort and more access to inputs and from suppliers.

So the rapture costs are a lot lower now, and you can maybe assess a different level of stock -- of stocks. But I think 2023 was a year where you're really like putting on the brakes, right, because you're coming from a scenario with supply and demand, '23 went through this correction, right? So it's natural that now we'd see a more normalized market when it comes to prices. Of course, with all the competitive advantage that the market has, but the supply and demand is at a level that's a lot more normalized. Well, besides all of this company also had important operational leverage, which was very significant. Last year, we increased our capacity. We launched new products, and all of this contributed to an improvement in our margins.

Now moving on to the first question about the Alfa public bid and immunoglobulin and other bids also with the recommendation from the court of auditors to use RDC, which is an exceptional case for the acquisition of drugs during the pandemic without the registrations from ANVISA, then now the recommendation from the Supreme Court of auditors changed. And now they're really going back to the situation where you have to consider the best economic conditions, right, in the State.

So the entire market has been debating this understanding from the court of auditors because today, there's a bit of a convergence also among all stakeholders in the system. So we can see that our competitors hadn't really manifested themselves yet. So even PSP, CMI and ANVISA, the Ministry of Health, et cetera. we're kind of debating all of the situation. So they're all converging now to the same understanding that this is an absurd.

So it doesn't really make sense to have a regulated company. It's present in the company. And the countries are investing millions of rise in R&D and then to really follow these assumptions and you see this unloyal competition scenario and unfair competition scenario. And without the actual studies, without the best practices in the production plan according to the overall assumptions by ANVISA.

So it's a total absurd. We've implemented all of the possible initiatives to alongside the traditional power, we have another situation, which is the public bid for alpha' suspended actually. And the immunoglobulin is also headed to towards the same direction. So they're all waiting around. And so everyone is waiting for the Supreme Court to manifest themselves about this understanding. So there's even a question about who they should follow, if they should follow the law or if they should follow the understanding from the Supreme Court. So just to give you an idea of where we're headed, right?

So it's a very atypical situation. And we hope that this can guide not only the investments with Blau in the future in Brazil but also for our competitors. So to invest in this regulated market. And this is sometimes completely productive, right, to consider a national industry that strengthened, that can meet the needs, the sanitary and health needs, right? So it's a situation, we are convinced it will be solved as soon as possible. Because if not, we're going to have a lack of supply in certain drugs.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Marcelo. So thanks, Leandro. Now we'll head to Glami Vilelo's question from JPMorgan.

[Unknown Analyst]

I wanted to get your guys is feeling with a bit of a follow-up on the previous question about competition in the oncology specialties when it comes to pricing and contract negotiations, right? So what's your on this, with the normalization in the segment? And secondly, it would be great if you guys could give us an update on what -- when it comes to the P1000 with the time line and the new openings, et cetera.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. Thanks for the question. When it comes to specialties and oncology, I think we're really well positioned. And -- we've been -- we have an oncology manufacturing plant with high production capacity. We have a very robust portfolio. We're well positioned. And we've been able to really handle competition and be competitive still. So one point to demonstrate Blau's positioning here on this aspect and getting back to the topic of the competitor for Alfa because I forgot to mention this is that we won the bid.

Even we were distributing with -- against a Chinese company that did not meet the sanitary health requirements in Brazil with all of the assumptions concerned. We still won with the best price. So it demonstrates our positioning and our stance as a local producer that's competitive and can really dispute markets with companies like companies in India or China, right? So the local production is still an important strength in a competitive scenario. So I see that the investments we have in the production plan, the capacity of our production or I look at this as positive, right? So about your question, yes, P1000, exactly. Okay. So about P1000, we continue to have the intention to set up a factory. were actually held on to these investments a bit. So 2023 was not the year where we had so much cash generation as we had imagined. So we continue to keep our project and our commitment with the State of Penda Mboko. And we plan to be a little slower now, but we should start construction during '24 already. This is our objective.

We see the centralization of all of our operations in a single spot assuming very positive. And we also see the tax benefit potential that, that state will provide as well the Sudene agreement with the income tax benefit. So I think that this -- so the investment thesis did not change. What we did was just readjust the timeline and the schedules because in '23, with Bergamo, we already added a lot of productive capacity, especially for oncology products, which the company has been launching gradually. So all of this is kind of in line with the strategic plan, but the investment thesis did not change. Besides all of this, -- the company expects to have cash generation this year, next year and the next years. And this investment will be phased out, right? So it's not going to be like a single investment, which is why we believe that with our own cash generation, we'll be able to handle this, and we won't have to mess with the leverage.

[Bruna Gamboa, executive]

Okay, exactly. Great, guys thank you. Okay. Thank you, Kiley. Well, now the questions that have been sent by text, the Investor Relations team will answer by e-mail later on. And I'll pass the floor to Marcelo for his final remarks.

[Marcelo Hahn, executive]

Well, I want to highlight that the investments in '23 are fundamental to deliver results a little next year. As we're really -- it's really gratifying to see Blau's continuing evolution over the past years, but the transformation that's coming and the future is even more impressive. In '24, we're going to start a new cycle of growth, and we'll start reaping the last year's investments, driven by the company's new sources of revenue.

And in addition, synergies with Bergamo and the optimization of working capital, operational improvements and launches, we're going to help with the evolution of our results in '25, we should already see even more transformational things like Prothya which should be an important highlight and the acceleration of our internationalization process. But it gives us great exposure to revenue hard currency and enables us to enter new markets with better positioning, which is an important step to verticalize our production.

In '23, Prothya exceeded EUR 315 million in revenue, a higher turnover than Blau, you can see how potential this operation really is. In the next coming years, we have important milestones with the verticalization of strategic products, expansion of our capacity and tax optimization as well as the launch of the four monoclonal antibodies that are under development.

We're convinced that the current investments are going to change the level of this new growth cycle well as in the previous cycles will present the expected returns for all companies, stakeholders, shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers and the entire community that we impact with our medication and our ESG actions. So Blau is just getting started. Join us.

Thank you so much. And I hope '24 can be a great year for all of us. Thank you all so much, Blau-ers.

[Operator]

Thank you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]