In the past two corona years, the laboratory equipment supplier had benefited from the high demand caused by the pandemic, especially in the Bioprocess Solutions division.
(Photo: Sartorius)
Frankfurt The pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment supplier Sartorius grew more slowly in the third quarter than expected by the markets. The company is now targeting the lower half of the previously forecast range of nine to 15 percent for sales growth this year, as Sartorius announced on Wednesday morning. This caused a violent price reaction on the stock exchange. The shares of the Dax group temporarily fell by almost 15 percent in the morning.
Sartorius CEO Joachim Kreuzburg had long announced that the company’s growth would slow down this year because the corona-related demand for the company’s products would decrease.
Nevertheless, the company is still growing in double digits. From July to September, sales increased by almost 17 percent to 1.05 billion euros. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), adjusted for special items, increased by almost 14 percent to 354 million euros.
Sartorius sticks to the margin target
The bottom line is that the profit attributable to the shareholders climbed by 45 percent to around 154 million euros. However, analysts had expected a higher adjusted Ebitda of 357 million euros and also a higher profit.
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The Goettingen-based group, which was promoted to the Dax last year, is still sticking to its goal of achieving an adjusted Ebitda margin of 34 percent for the current year. “However, global political and economic uncertainties remain high,” said company boss Kreuzburg. In the third quarter, the margin was 33.6 percent.
In the past two corona years, Sartorius had benefited from the high demand caused by the pandemic, especially in the Bioprocess Solutions Division. In this business area, Sartorius offers a wide range of products and technologies for the production of biopharmaceuticals and vaccines. However, the division continues to grow in double digits even after the corona boom, because more and more biotech drugs are in demand and produced worldwide.
The second division of the company, the laboratory business, also continued to post double-digit growth. In contrast to the biotechnology sector, incoming orders did not decline here either.
Calculated for the first nine months of this year, incoming orders at Sartorius fell by 9.5 percent, adjusted for exchange rate effects, to 3.1 billion euros. During this period, sales climbed by 16.6 percent to 3.1 billion euros, calculated on the basis of constant exchange rates.
Acquisitions contribute to growth
Acquisitions such as the majority stake in the reagents manufacturer Cellgenix or the cell culture specialist Xell contributed two percent to growth. At the end of September, Sartorius also completed the takeover of the British biopharmaceutical specialist Albumedix, for which the company paid the equivalent of almost 500 million euros.
Sartorius’ adjusted operating EBITDA increased by 21.4 percent to EUR 1.05 million in the first nine months. This corresponds to a margin of 33.8 percent, which is just under the previous year’s figure of 34.3 percent.
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