Lonza Group AG

SIX:LONN

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q1

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Q1 Review 2020 Conference Call. I'm Alessandro, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Albert Baehny, CEO ad interim and Chairman of the Board of Directors also, Lonza Group. Please go ahead, sir.

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the introduction. Good afternoon and welcome to everybody. No doubt you will remember that last year, Lonza stopped reporting its quarterly results. This decision was taken for strategic reasons. Quarterly one-off effects can cause significant distortions to the quarterly comparison, and this can lead to mistaken business trend conclusions. However, in Q1 2020, we find that we are living in exceptional times, and we felt it was the right moment to reinstate our quarterly update for this quarter only. The coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented economic impacts and changed global business realities in the space of a few weeks. At this time of uncertainty, we wanted to ensure that our investor community could benefit from an update on our business and performance. This time of uncertainty means it is unrealistic and counterproductive for us to engage in speculation about the future. Instead, our conference call will focus on past performance and present position. Let's start with an overview of the performance at group level. At a constant exchange rate, net sales for the group were up 7.4% compared to the previous year, reaching CHF 1.6 billion in the first quarter compared to Q1 2019. In the same period, net sales for the LPBN segment increased by 8.3% quarter-on-quarter at a constant exchange rate and reached CHF 1.2 billion. Net sales for the LSI segments were up 3.8% at the constant exchange rate and reached CHF 409 million. Inevitably, a part of our quarterly performance was delivered before the impact of the COVID-19 virus was felt at a global level. In this time of uncertainty, businesses are facing unprecedented challenges to their stability and continuity. In this very challenging landscape, Lonza occupies a unique position. Our LPBN segment is working with customers to manufacture medical treatments for vulnerable patients at a time where the need has never been greater. Meanwhile, our LSI business is delivering disinfection solutions, many of which play a critical role in controlling and containing the spread of the coronavirus. Our role as supplier of essential products, services and solutions has allowed us to maintain our operations to a large extent while taking care to maintain the safety of our employees. During Q1, we can confirm that we had experienced a small number of minor disruptions caused by the coronavirus. First, our smaller Wood Protection sites in Malaysia, South Africa and Oceania had been suspended for a few weeks. This is part of the LSI segment's offering in Microbial Control Solutions. Second, we have seen a slowdown of a few days at one capsule production site in Colmar, France. This was a temporary issue, and the site is already returning to full production. Third, a few bulk raw material supplies had been disrupted, notably from India. Fourth and finally, some inbound and outbound logistics delays have occurred. However, these are generally in the order of a few days and weeks, meaning they are so far manageable. Looking at the business more widely, I am pleased to report that throughout Q1, all LPBN sites globally have been running to targets with very few exceptions. I am also pleased to report that during Q1, we have not experienced delays to any clinical trial programs. Let me now take a moment to provide you with a more detailed review of the performance within each segment over the first quarter. I will start with the review of Q1 performance in the LPBN segments, always keeping in mind the always unavoidable quarterly one-off effects. The Small Molecules business achieved strong momentum with only modest impacts from COVID-19. The sales comparison with Q1 2019 was influenced by a particularly strong sales performance in the first quarter of the previous year. Mammalian and Microbial saw ongoing strong momentum with no delays or cancellations to existing clinical programs. The impact of COVID-19 was minimal, and indeed, it could be an opportunity for the business unit. To date, we have received more than 40 inquiries regarding projects relating to COVID-19. Cell and Gene Therapy delivered very strong sales growth supported by solid, continuing demand, especially in viral vector. All signed projects remain on track in Q1 and COVID-19 has already offered some new and important opportunities which are currently under review. The Biosciences business reported a positive performance in first quarter, supported by strong sales. All bioscience facilities have remained operational. We have seen mixed performance within the Capsules business, with the pharma business behind the previous year. However, this has been partially offset by a stronger performance in the Nutrition business, which has benefited from a strong demand in the U.S. and in Europe for dietary supplements. Now let me turn from LPBN to the LSI segment. LSI has started the year with a strong first quarter, reporting net sales in constant currency up 3.8%. This was mainly driven by strong sales in Microbial Control Solutions. Let's take a moment to review the Microbial Control Solutions, the larger of the 2 divisions within the LSI business. As a general overview, demand for microbial control solutions were solid, with a differentiated sales development. Professional Hygiene, Home and Personal Care saw a very strong performance. Material Protection, Paints and Coatings and Crop Protection also reported a solid performance with positive growth rates. In contrast, we saw softer demand for Wood Protection in almost all regions. Now let me turn to the Specialty Chemical Services, the other division within the LSI segment. This business was negatively impacted by a negative cycle in some end markets. We saw weaker demand mainly for transportation, which negatively impacted the Composites business. Custom (sic) [ customer ] manufacturing was negatively impacted by soft demand in Chemical CDMO. However, our Fermentation CDMO was significantly ahead of the same quarter in the previous year. Performance Chemicals and Intermediates were impacted by lower market prices in general. This was only partially offset by a very solid vitamin B3 demand. I hope this overview has provided an insight into our operating environment and our business performance. The large proportion of our operations support the pharma and biotech industry, while our LSI segment delivers disinfection solutions, many of which are effective against COVID-19. These services and solutions mean that our license to operate currently remains intact in most markets. We're also fortunate as we have not suffered from any major disruptions to business continuity caused by challenges to supply. This means that we are currently able to continue as planned with our strategic growth projects and long-term investments, all of which contribute to support our future growth potential. Earlier in my summary, I indicated that we have so far received more than 40 clinical and commercial inquiries regarding projects related to COVID-19. Inevitably, we cannot engage and collaborate in all of those projects. Instead, we are focusing our efforts on selected key development projects relating to both vaccines and therapeutic treatments. Helping to contain the spread of COVID-19 is a moral and ethical duty. We're committed to doing all we can to support and accelerate the development of potential medical solutions to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside this, I am pleased to report that Lonza is liquid. At year-end 2019, we reported cash of CHF 500 million. This cash level was supported by the refinancing and extension of our syndicated terms and revolving bank facilities, which we announced in the autumn of 2019. Looking to this year, we are in the final stages of refinancing our debt maturities by having launched a 3-years CHF 300 million bond and a 7-year EUR 500 million bond earlier this month. Finally, we have no covenants on outstanding debts, which leaves us in a strong position of liquidity. Looking at our performance today, we must also remember that the strong Swiss francs will have an impact on our future reported figures. Nonetheless, we have managed to maintain a positive performance in the first quarter, which confirms that our know-how, expertise and assets are needed in the context of the current global challenges. Moreover, we have very clear priorities going forward: first, maintain and protect the safety of our employees; second, focus on business continuity and our 2020 budget; third, finalize the LSI carve-out by mid of this year; fourth, identify and confirm a future CEO; fifth, successful execution of our major growth investments; sixth, review alternative options for the LSI segments; seventh, maintain our strong balance sheet; and eighth, continue to improve operational efficiency through cost containment measures. As I draw to a close, I will share a final reminder that the issues regarding COVID-19 are fast moving and impossible to predict. As such, I am not able to speculate about the future, but I'm pleased to answer questions about the current state of the business and our performance in Q1. I thank you for your time and attention, and I'm opening the Q&A session.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from K.C. Arikatla from Goldman Sachs.

[Krishna Chaitanya Arikatla, Research Analyst]

I just had one the Capsules business, please. Can you talk about the drivers behind the softness in the pharma capsules business in this quarter? Because last year, that business was growing in the low single-digit range. So it would be great to understand whether it's driven by volume or price. And if you can comment about what you expect for that business going forward.

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the question. There are 2 main reasons behind the negative development of the Capsules business and the pharma business, one internal and one external. I'll start with the external reason. The external one is basically problems the pharmaceutical industry faced with the supply of APIs mainly coming from Asia. The second reason is internal. We are introducing SAP processes in the Capsules business, and we faced, as everybody in the introduction phases, some problems. But the main reason is external. It is the lack of supply of APIs to the European and U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Now when this supply problem coming from India and from China will be resolved, the answer is I don't know.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Patrick Rafaisz from UBS.

[Patrick Rafaisz, Director and Chemical Research Analyst]

I have 3 if that's okay, and the first one would be, you mentioned there were no cancellations of clinical programs, which is very encouraging. But -- and would you say that, that gives you also confidence for the rest of the semester from -- did you notice any change in incoming requests where we should think about potential phasing impacts here first and second quarter? The second question will be on LSI. And I realize you probably don't want to talk about the second quarter here, but looking at the monthly performance in Q1, January, February, March, March might give us a bit of an indication of what will come in April, May. So if you could shed a bit of light on on the monthly development here in LSI. And then the last is just a quick one. What was your currency impact in the first quarter, please?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the question. I mentioned a few times in my introduction that we have not been impacted in Q1 with cancellation, with delays on any clinical programs. But of course, we are not blind, and it is clear that today, the FDA is postponing reviews as well as facility inspections. So we can expect in the industry in general that there will be some delays or maybe suspensions of clinical trials. So, so far, I repeat, we have not been affected at all by this situation. I just want to remember you as well that we generate most of our revenues from manufacturing approved and commercialized products. The next comment I would like to make here is that the demand for new additional projects related to COVID-19 is huge, and we cannot -- we will not be able to handle most of this request. To the second question about LSI, I suspected, is mainly Microbial Control Systems. Yes, of course, we have seen an increase of the volume demand or the sales between January, February and March. And regarding the currency impact, I would like to comment on that only when we'll be publishing the half year results. I don't want to comment on this today. Thank you for the questions.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Peter Welford from Jefferies.

[Peter James Welford]

I have 3 questions, please. Firstly, with regards to the LBPN business. You commented on clinical programs. I wonder if you can comment, has there been any shift at all in commercial batches that have been requested? And do you have any -- I guess have the commercial customers requested any changes in the shipping of commercial batches at all? And secondly then, obviously, all of your facilities are operating more or less normally, as to your comments at the start. But can you just comment, given obviously the social distancing that we're all having to live within our current lives, is it possible still to operate the same shift pattern and the same -- operate the facilities the same as normal? Or have steps had to be taken for your employees working in these facilities that reduce, I guess, the efficiency or turnover time, I guess, within these facilities given your various employee shift patterns? And then thirdly, just on the COVID opportunities. You mentioned there were over 40 opportunities that you had inquiries on. You mentioned that as part of your comments in Mammalian. Curious, therefore, is -- of the opportunities you're looking at, should we be thinking here about vaccines and therapeutics, therapeutics meaning biologics? Or would you also say some of these inquiries that you're potentially considering and focusing on are also inquiries into small molecule COVID opportunities?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the question. During Q1, we haven't seen any needs and any request for modifying the schedule of commercial batches in our production sites in Singapore, in Europe and in North America. So business as usual during Q1. Now of course, to be able to run our plants efficiently, we need the operators and we need our educated operators. So we take all kinds of measures we can take to ensure that they are safe and healthy. And of course, there were some modifications we have to take in the way the shifts are organized, but there is no impact on the efficiency and on the capacity utilization of our plants. So I would say my colleagues did an extremely fantastic job here in making sure that the employees are safe and the plant ran at capacity. Regarding these more than 40 inquiries we have received so far linked to COVID-19, we are -- we will be focusing our efforts, and we will be selecting projects in both vaccines and therapeutics. And on the therapeutic, it will be mainly biologics or large molecules.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Falko Friedrichs from Deutsche Bank.

[Falko Friedrichs, Research Analyst]

I will have 3, please. Firstly, can you speak a bit about your competitive positioning when it comes to producing vaccines? And are you starting to ramp up capacity for a possible COVID-19 vaccine that might come in early 2021? And secondly, are you currently capacity constrained in your disinfectant business? And if yes, are you ramping this up currently to meet the high demand? And then thirdly, could you give an overview of where you source your raw materials from and how flexible your global setup is?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the questions. We are not a traditional vaccine producer. Let's be fair. This is not our expertise. Nevertheless, what can we offer to a partner who would like to work with us on vaccine? We can offer the cleanrooms. We have our own cleanrooms. We understand from a manufacturing point of view most of the individual step in the manufacturing. We have an educated labor force, and we have the overall manufacturing expertise. But I repeat it, we are not an expert on vaccines, but we're an expert on manufacturing, on process development and -- or scaling up manufacturing processes. Of course, the Microbial Control system business is running at high capacity, and the only way for us to produce much more will be to increase the capacities. But this did not happen overnight. It takes time to do that. But in the current term, that's what I can say, that we're running close to full capacity. Now the overview on the raw material. This is -- I mean, honestly, I don't want to engage into that discussion because then I have to go key raw material by key raw materials. What I can say, and I repeat what I said in the introduction, we had faced some delays in having access to some raw materials. But at the end, we have been able to manage all that correctly. And we are not expecting -- assuming the world is not dramatically changing, we are assuming that we will be able to source correctly our key raw materials in the future. It's a general answer, I know, but I don't want to enter into individual key raw materials because it is also a confidential type of information. Thank you for your understanding.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Markus Gola from MainFirst.

[Markus Gola, Vice President]

So my first one would be on your growth projects in LPBN. Roughly speaking, how much of the future growth do you expect will come from large pharma? And how much is related to small and midsized biotech in your current planning? And related to this, could you shed some light at how you see biotech funding situation at the moment given that Lonza's involved in some of the venture capital funds in this space? My second question is on the directionality in LSI. But here, more on the chemicals part. Have you seen a significant slowdown or maybe year-on-year contraction of sales in the cyclical part of the portfolio? And then lastly, on your LSI strategic options, do you still believe that we will see a decision taken in 2020?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Okay. Thank you for the question. I move back to the question. I'll start with the last question, LSI strategic options. We -- at the Board level of Lonza, we are still analyzing, reviewing, debating about the various options for the future of LSI, and we have not yet decided in which direction we want to move. Finally, this decision should be -- could be taken end of H1 or during Q3. This was the fourth question. On LSI, the chemical part, yes, we are not immune to the cyclicality of some segments: electronics, automotive, transportation, chemical industry. So it's why in our Q1 results we had an excellent performance with Microbial Control systems. And on the cyclical part of the business, the environment is a bit more difficult, and we have not been able to generate the growth rates we generated or maximized. So yes, we are affected by the cyclicality of some end markets like electronics, transportation and others. I'm not an expert on biotech fundings, to be honest. I would like to give you an answer. What I am sensing is that there will be enough money available for the key projects, for top project and top organizations. I don't think the money will disappear. Maybe in the future, the fund managers will become more selective. But when you see how the pharmaceutical industry and the biotech industry are performing in this environment, this is certainly an area where I would invest long term in the future rather than in other industries. So I'm not scared about the fundings may be more and more selective. Now the growth project with LPBN, certainly, that in the medium and long term, most of the growth rates will come from large pharma and will come also from small startups in the preclinical, clinical phases, but the bulk of the business is today will come from large pharma. And interestingly enough, I mean, we -- I remember a few months ago I was facing over this debate between large-scale operators and lower-scale operators with 1K and 2K. I can tell you today that the market is looking after -- is requesting large-scale operators, 10K and plus and not 1 or 2Ks. So it's why I can say there's quite a level of confidence that in the future, the bulk of the business will still be with large pharma. Thank you for the questions.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Thomas Wrigglesworth from Citi.

[Thomas P. Wrigglesworth, Director and Chemicals & Basic Materials Analyst]

Two really on Ibex. I was wondering, as we think about the ramp-up of that facility over the coming quarters and years, is there a bias in the early-phase revenue between manufacturing versus chemical trials? And secondly, notwithstanding the kind of human challenge here, is the picture that you're getting from the market today one that would actually encourage you to accelerate Ibex? Or you're -- it's too early to tell?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

I didn't get the first question, but I move back again. If I look today at what we are experiencing in terms of request linked to COVID-19, then I would be tempted to accelerate Ibex clearly. The human challenge is a clear challenge, but I'm surprised, positively surprised to say that so far, we have been able to attract the talents we need, not only the quality, but the quantity of the talents we need linked to Ibex in Visp in Switzerland. And now I didn't get the first question about the ramp-up of Ibex, sorry.

[Thomas P. Wrigglesworth, Director and Chemicals & Basic Materials Analyst]

Sorry. I just -- in regards to the business opportunities and the early phases of Ibex's ramp, are they evenly distributed, i.e., there's no bias towards more clinical type of sales versus maybe more traditional CDMO type of business?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

No. The Ibex has basically 3 legs, this Design and Develop and -- now I'm missing the -- Dedicate. So I said it, based on what I see today, I'm convinced that the basic idea of Ibex is good and will accelerate certainly on the Dedicate to add more capacities with large-scale operations. And on the Design and Develop, it is rather -- the trend is on rather clinical phases 1, 2 and 3. So I feel comfortable that the Ibex concept is well balanced, and we will be filling in these capacities on both side, Dedicate and Develop and on -- Design and Develop and also on Dedicate.

[Thomas P. Wrigglesworth, Director and Chemicals & Basic Materials Analyst]

Could I just have a quick follow-up? Sorry. We talked about in the full year results a bit of pricing pressure in the Capsules business through the second half of '19. Can I take from your comments earlier that actually that's abated now and has kind of -- and it's -- given that it's an API supply issue that has impacted your comments on Capsules?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

I repeat what I said. There was a very strong demand for capsules in nutrition Europe and in U.S.A. with less pressure on prices. There was also a solid demand for capsules on pharma, but there is certainly a delay because of lack of APIs coming out of Asia, in Europe and in North America. So maybe the volume is just delayed by a few months. This is an hypothesis.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Daniel Jelovcan from Mirabaud.

[Daniel Jelovcan, Analyst]

Two questions, please. The first is the CEO successorship in February. You said you were quite well advanced and the interest is good, of course, to run a company like Lonza. So can you give us an update, the shortlist? Is it becoming even shorter now and where you stand? And the second question is, is it fair to assume that LPBN would have grown double digit excluding the external Capsugel issues from the sourcing? I think that's another 2 questions.

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

The CEO shortlist is down to one candidate. As of next week, we will be starting discussing and proposing, negotiating the term of the contract. So assuming we can find -- we find the solutions, by mid-May latest, we will be able to announce who will be my successor. This is where we are. So we will be respecting the deadline we indicated already in December last year, saying that by end of May latest, we will be able to inform you about my successor. So we are in good shape. And as I said, the shortlist is down to one person. We still need to discuss, negotiate and finalize the term of the contract before we can announce it officially. Now your speculation on LPBN double digit without Capsugel, I mean, you can make the mathematics amongst yourself. You know the size of the business. It's -- on an annual basis, Capsules business is CHF 1 billion. We had negative growth rates in the first quarter of this year, low single digit but nevertheless impacting the whole of LPBN. So I don't want to comment on this one, but you can make the calculation yourself and come to the results.

[Daniel Jelovcan, Analyst]

Okay. Yes. And I didn't know that it was low single-digit decline, so -- but now I have the ingredients to calculate.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Patrick Wood from Bank of America.

[Patrick Andrew Robert Wood]

We've got 2 left, please. The first is, you guys are obviously having a lot of discussions with your pharma partners on supply chain management. I'm just curious as to how those discussions have been going. What are you hearing? And do you think there's a sense for some decentralization over time? Have those discussions with pharma partners, I guess, changed the appetite for in-house versus CDMO? So that's question 1. Question 2, nitpicky but just kind of want to clarify, because you mentioned your priority's about focusing on the budget and that side of things. Does that mean that we can still stand by the guidance for this year for Lonza? Or is that something that we should be putting on the side?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the questions. I would like to come back to your question and to return the question. If you can tell me how the world will look like in Q2, in Q3 and in Q4, if you would be able to tell me how you see the main end segments for Geberit, maybe for Lonza, maybe I could give you some guidance. But I was expecting, of course, that somebody would try to ask a question about the guidance. I say only this comment and no additional comments on guidance and outlook. Assuming that the business environment in Q2, Q3 and Q4 is not deteriorating, which means we have access to the key raw materials, we are not obliged and forced to close any plants, the pharmaceutical is very strong, I feel confident to say we can confirm the outlook for this year, assuming the business environment is not deteriorating versus what we saw in Q1 and there is no collapse and we are not obliged to close, to shut down key plants. So this is my last comment on outlook. Now regarding the decentralization, the role of CDMO versus the big pharma, this is not a new topic. It is -- we can say in general that, yes, the pharmaceutical industry is trending to be focused more and more on the 2 extremes of their value chain: on one side, discovery; and the other side, commercialization, marketing and, in between, the clinical trials. So in this context, the role of a CDMO player has become more and more important as we believe at Lonza over time the big pharma will delegate more and more the manufacturing responsibilities to CDMO players. This is our view. And I'm not saying I'm right. This is our view based on current discussions.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Laura Lopez from Baader-Helvea.

[Laura Lopez Pineda, Analyst]

I have one left. Again, coming on capsule for the nutrition business. So don't you think that maybe the environment improved a little bit because the competition from China was limited in the first quarter because of the COVID outbreak there, and that maybe now this pricing pressure, let's say, this higher supply will come back in the second quarter now that plants are also starting to ramp up in Asia and specifically in China?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Well, it's a good remark. I would be tempted to say yes and no. What does it mean? Clearly, in the Nutrition area, the demand was significantly higher and repeated. Basically, I suspect people wanted to take some pills to improve basically the -- to take more vitamins than in normal cases because of the virus. At the same time, yes, we have been a little bit benefiting from supply logistic problem from both Chinese and Indian players. This is correct.

[Laura Lopez Pineda, Analyst]

And sorry, maybe one more to add, on LSI. So you did mention some pricing pressure on Performance Chemicals and Intermediates. And -- but maybe can you give us a guidance on the margin? So also, raw materials, so to say, oil prices have come down massively. So is it fair to assume that actually, your margins have held pretty strong or, let's say, stable despite the lower growth because of pricing?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

The margins topic will be presented, discussed with H1 results, so I don't comment today. On -- but on chemicals, as you know, as you said it yourself, some raw material prices came down because of the oil price coming down. And in some contracts, you have, again, formula price. If raw material prices come down, your price come down. But I don't want to comment on the margins today. This will be for actually half year results, sorry. Now the operator forgot to say that this call will take 45 minutes, so I'll take the next few questions.

[Operator]

We will take 2 more questions now.

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Okay.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Chouhan, Naresh from Intron.

[Naresh Chouhan;Intron Health]

It's Naresh Chouhan here from Intron Health. Three, please. One on Cell and Gene Therapy. How do you progress towards your 5% of sales target? There's obviously -- it's obviously a very fast-growing space...

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Can you repeat? Can you repeat this question? Sorry, I'm not with you. You're on Cell and Gene?

[Naresh Chouhan;Intron Health]

Yes. Your end market of Cell and Gene Therapy being 5% of group sales, how have you progressed towards that target? And could the Cocoon platform start to contribute to sales from 2021? Or is this a much longer-term program? And then on vaccines, you talked briefly about vaccines. And in light of it was quite clear that we have a shortage of vaccine capacity globally, would you consider expanding into vaccines over the kind of medium term? And thirdly, are you seeing a shift in customers' desire to use Asian CDMO players? And are you seeing more inquiries from people where you might be able to gain some share?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Thank you for the question. Cell and Gene, 5% of group sales, to be honest, this is not my -- this is certainly not my target. The target for me with Cell and Gene is to outperform the market with higher growth rates, top line and to improve the margin of this business. If it is 5% of group sales, if it is 4% or 8%, if we outperform the market with the top line and we improve significantly the margin, I will be very happy. On Cocoon, don't expect revenues in 2021. This is a long-term projects. It's not generating sales. It's generating margin, of course. But in 2021, you can't expect Cocoon being a participant on the top line growth of the Lonza Group. It will take more years. Vaccines, yes, we are prepared and willing to consider expanding. We have capacity which is available. We have cleanrooms of not a lot available for vaccines. And assuming we have access to the right partners, the right collaboration, we would be happy and willing to invest and expand on this business. And I don't want to comment on the Asian CDMO players. If a pharma company look at these players to work over them, I don't know, to be honest, so I can't comment.

[Operator]

The last question comes from Rupen Boyadjian from Finanz und Wirtschaft.

[Rupen Boyadjian;Finanz und Wirtschaft]

I also have 3 if you allow and the time permits. The growth in LPBN of 8.3% seems to be lower or rather at the lower end of your guidance and certainly lower than first half of last year. Do you see this as a normal fluctuation? Or is it a slowdown, actual slowdown? And then LSI, is this a sustainable growth? Or could it -- did you see some hoarding going on in the industry in the face of the crisis eventually? And then what can we expect for eventual additional costs for COVID measures like protection gear for your employees and the like?

[Albert M. Baehny, Chairman & Interim CEO]

Well, first of all, on the LPBN growth rates, I mean, 8.3% in this business environment, I think, is an excellent result. We are certainly not losing market share. We are growing with the market, I would even say in excess. And don't forget that in this 8.3%, there is a negative growth rate of the Capsules business. If you exclude that, I said it before, you make the mathematics and you will see that LPB without Capsules will be generating high growth rates, of course. Second remark on this one, it is a quarterly results, it is not an annual results. And I said at the very beginning be careful with the interpretation, of course, on the results because of onetime effects. It gives wrong -- it can give the wrong indication about the future trend. Is LSI sustainable? I suspect in this environment, the Microbial Control business will be solid, will stay solid. The demand is strong. For the more cyclical part of the business, we are not immune, and we will be affected either positively or negatively by the changes in transportation, in electronics and in other industrial applications. Now regarding the additional costs regarding COVID-19, we are not expecting any significant additional cost in the coming weeks and months. Thank you for the questions and for your interest. So I'll take the last one if there is another question, and then, sorry, I have to move on. And if there are no questions anymore, then I would like to thank you for your time, for your participation, for your interest. I wish you all a nice weekend. And of course, more importantly, stay all safe and healthy. And thank you for your interest in the Lonza Group. Wish you all the best. Thank you very much, and goodbye.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.