EVOTEC SE 
The shares fell by a good 21 percent to 16.80 euros at the peak on Thursday and were by far the biggest loser in the second-line index MDax. Evotec announced on Wednesday evening that Lanthaler was stepping down from his position for personal reasons. His contract would actually have run until March 2026. Lanthaler had been at the helm of the Hamburg-based company for almost 15 years. He was previously CFO of the Viennese biotech company Intercell, which merged with the French company Vivalis in 2013 to form today's Valneva.
Supervisory Board member Mario Polywka, previously responsible for operations on the Management Board, is to take over as CEO on an interim basis. Lanthaler will continue to be available to the Supervisory Board as a strategic advisor. "After an extremely challenging and exhausting year in 2023, both physically and overall, and after in-depth reflection over the past few weeks and looking ahead to the new year, I have come to the decision to step down as CEO as I will not be able to serve the company in the best possible way over the next few years," explained the 55-year-old. The Austrian already had to take a break for around a year in 2012 for health reasons.
Lanthaler had successfully led the company for many years. However, Evotec had to cope with numerous low blows last year. The company fell victim to a serious cyber attack in the spring of 2023 and had to cancel its annual targets as the attack impaired productivity throughout the second quarter. Evotec was temporarily removed from the mid-cap index MDax as the company had not submitted its annual report on time due to the attack on its IT systems. Evotec confirmed its guidance for 2023.
(Report by Patricia Weiß; Edited by Hans Busemann; If you have any queries, please contact the editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)).
