The laboratory equipment supplier reports a poorer business development. The peak values from the time of the corona pandemic have disappeared.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The laboratory outfitter Sartorius has had to give up hopes of a strong recovery in business in the second half of the year. The company from Göttingen lowered its sales and profit forecasts significantly on Friday evening and is now expecting a drop in sales of around 10 to 15 percent for the current year.
Up to now, Sartorius had assumed a low single-digit growth rate. The Executive Board admitted that the operating return on sales (EBITDA margin) of around 30 percent will not match the previous year’s level of 33.8 percent, as expected. The company spoke of “persistent general weak demand dynamics”.
The warehouses of customers from the biopharmaceutical industry were fuller than expected after the corona pandemic, so dismantling them took longer, the company explained. Because of the supply bottlenecks, they had stocked up in excess of the acute need. In addition, customers invested less because the capacities remained unused.
After a weak first quarter, CEO Joachim Kreuzburg was still confident in mid-April that business would pick up in the second half of the year. In the first three months of the year, sales fell by 13 percent, the operating result (Ebitda) even by 22 percent. Incoming orders collapsed by almost a third.
The Sartorius share, which is listed in the leading index Dax, had increased by 3.7 percent on Friday to 295.50 euros. Since early June, it had recovered from a yearly low and gained 17 percent.
Corona brought high growth rate
In recent years, Sartorius has benefited from high demand for products used in the manufacture of corona vaccines and drugs, and has thus achieved growth rates of over 30 percent. But even if you exclude the Corona sales, a decline in sales can now be expected, explained Sartorius.
The company has to make the biggest cuts – especially in terms of returns – in the Bioprocess Solutions division. However, the 2.4 billion euro takeover of the French biotech company Polyplus is not yet included in the forecasts.
However, there is no reason to change anything about the medium-term plans for 2025. “Sartorius sees the current demand situation after the pandemic as a phase that only temporarily overshadows the fundamental, very positive growth drivers of the life science and biopharmaceutical markets,” the statement said.
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