(new: share price, statements from conference call, more details)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The announcement of a takeover gave Gerresheimer's shares, which had been flagging recently, a boost on Thursday. They recovered by 12 percent in the morning from their three-month low reached the day before. At its peak, the share price had even risen by almost 15 percent. They also stood out positively from their pharma glass competitor Schott Pharma, whose share price rose by 1.5 percent.

Gerresheimer shares had recently suffered along with other comparable stocks from the pharma packaging sector due to the fact that they no longer provided the usual good news. A disappointing outlook from Schott Pharma, which warned of weak sales of syringes, had also recently left its mark on Gerresheimer. On Thursday, Gerresheimer also confirmed its forecast for the current financial year 2023/24 (as at the end of November).

Over the past four trading days, the share price had fallen by more than 12 percent at its peak. The shares have now made up for this dip following the news that Gerresheimer intends to expand its pharma business with the acquisition of Blitz LuxCo. In effect, the holding company is acquiring the Bormioli Pharma Group - an Italian company that also manufactures primary pharmaceutical packaging.

The acquisition, valued at 800 million euros, should reassure Gerresheimer investors after the recent speculation about a possible profit warning, wrote Jefferies analyst James Vane-Tempest in an initial reaction. He emphasized that a new pressed glass business unit would be formed after the integration, which would bring strategic opportunities.

According to David Adlington from the US bank JPMorgan, investors are likely to focus on the fact that the transaction will probably increase earnings per share (EPS) by more than 10 percent in the first year. In his opinion, this and the recent relatively pessimistic positioning of investors should have a positive effect on Gerresheimer's share price in the short term. Vane-Tempest also wrote that Gerresheimer shares have recently had a difficult time in the face of bad news from competitors Schott Pharma and Stevanato.

According to some analysts who have looked more closely at the valuation in recent weeks, Gerresheimer shares have a lot of catching up to do. Olivier Calvet from UBS emphasized in an initial assessment a few days ago that the discount to other competitors was 35 to 40 percent and therefore too high. He had recommended buying the shares in mid-May.

Ed Hall from the investment bank Stifel, who started Schott Pharma with a "hold" and gave Gerresheimer the edge with a "buy" recommendation, emphasized similar points in April. The expert argued that Gerresheimer shares were the better choice for investing in the high-growth pharma packaging sector. Growth has never been clearer than at Gerresheimer.

Packaging manufacturers such as Gerresheimer and Schott Pharma were long regarded as beneficiaries of the hype surrounding weight loss drugs from the GLP-1 drug class. Within three years, this had also ensured that the shares of the Danish pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk are now worth four times as much. Here, too, the rally had recently stalled for a while before the shares swung back up to a record high.

Gerresheimer shares reached their record high in September 2023 at just under EUR 123 before profit-taking set in, which only came to an end in November at around EUR 80. From this level, the shares struggled to make significant gains at times. In the course of the year to date, they had also fallen by a good one percent by Wednesday. With the jump in the share price, they are now back in the double-digit percentage range since the beginning of the year./tih/ajx/jha/