BIOTAGE AB Solid core business
January – March
- Net sales amounted to
SEK 361 (386) million, an decrease of 6.4 percent and an organic* decrease of 12.8 percent.
- Operating profit amounted to
SEK 54 (96) million and adjusted* toSEK 71 (101) million.
- The operating margin was 14.8 percent (24.9) and adjusted to 19.8 percent (26.3).
- EBITA* amounted to
SEK 61 (103) million. and adjusted toSEK 79 (108) million.
- The EBITA margin* amounted to 16.9 percent (26.7) and adjusted to 21.8 percent (28.1).
- Profit after tax amounted to
SEK 43 (71) million.
- Earnings per share were
SEK 0.65 (1.08) before and after dilution.
- Cash flow from operating activities decreased to
SEK 11 (57) million.
- Net cash* as of
March 31 wasSEK 188 (199) million.
- On
February 15, 2023 an agreement was announced to acquireAstrea Group Holdings Company Ltd. ("Astrea").
- On
March 9 , it was announced that Lars Bäckman, Chief Legal Officer, will retire and leaveBiotage inSeptember 2023 .
Message from the CEO
March was the best month of the quarter, with record sales in the
At the same time, there were positive aspects and many of our other business areas are doing and developing well. Like other companies, we were affected by the market’s focus on cash flow and working capital. Developments indicate that many clients are postponing purchases until a later date.
Our European Scale Up business with lipid purification related to the production of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 declined a lot, while we see a weaker CRO segment in the Chinese market. In general, customers have also been destocking and being cautious about capital purchases.
Of course, we take the deteriorating growth and profitability seriously. We are working on efficiency gains and allocating resources in the best possible way. At the same time, we want to avoid reacting prematurely. During the pandemic, we learned the value of finding a good balance in response. At
Together with our leadership in
The fact that individual imbalances in the market can hit our business hard proves our strategy to make sense, as it is entering new, attractive niches achieving a wider range of solutions for our customers. With acquisitions such as ATDBio and our successful integration of that business, Diagnostics experienced double-digit growth. We are targeting more markets and becoming less vulnerable. We are now working with the Astrea Bioseparations merger, which is subject to approval of the transaction at the Annual General Meeting on
Our global presence and diversified product portfolio are helping to mitigate the impact of the slowdown in
Two of our three client-focused areas grew in this quarter. White Tech experienced a weaker quarter, while Red Tech and Blue & Green Tech reported growth.
When it comes to individual product areas, we see that in Red Tech, sales experienced double-digit growth figures in Diagnostics driven by our oligonucleotide business and Analytical Testing. Blue & Green Tech also reported double-digit growth figures in Water & Environmental Testing. In the White Tech areas Small Molecules & Synthetic Therapeutics and Scale Up sales declined, but continued to grow in Biologics & Advanced Therapeutics. If we disregard lipid purification, our underlying Scale-Up business also remained strong.
In keeping with our strategy, our work on digititalization took another step forward with the introduction of new software solutions for Biotage® Selekt, our world-leading platform for purification of small molecules. The solutions have been developed in cooperation with our customers and enable remote control and interconnection of several systems. This makes it possible to streamline workflows in the laboratories that are used to develop new pharmaceuticals.
Another important focus for us is sustainability, and we received confirmation that our efforts are delivering results – we saw a shift from Medium Risk to Low Risk in Morningstar Sustainalytics’ global ESG Risk Ratings. Fortunately, our efforts to be an employer that offers equal opportunities is also bearing fruit, which is made clear by the results of the 2022 Swedish salary survey. Our equality index rose from 97.3 to 101.0, while the Swedish average is 95.8.
Going forward, we aim to strengthen our position in drug development in attractive niches and modalities with higher volumes, growth, and gross margins. We want to strengthen our recurring sales and product lines used in the commercial phase. From this perspective, I look to the future with more confidence than ever, as we hope to soon be able to welcome our new colleagues from Astrea Bioseparations.
Uppsala,
President and CEO
© Modular Finance, source
