Business Figures for the First Half of 2018

Sartorius Stedim Biotech Records Double-Digit Growth in Sales and Profit

Regulatory News:

Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB)(Paris:DIM), a leading partner of the biopharma industry, has continued on the growth track, delivering double-digit increases in sales revenue and earnings in the first half of 2018.

“Especially the second quarter came in somewhat ahead of our initial expectations,” said Joachim Kreuzburg, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. “This dynamic performance was broad-based, with both single-use products and equipment contributing to growth. In view of our strong order intake, we expect that this momentum will continue on into the second half, and therefore raise our forecast for the full year.”

Business development of the Group

In the first half of 2018, sales revenue rose by 11.1% in constant currencies (reported: +7.3%) from 545.9 million euros to 585.7 million euros. Growth was largely achieved organically, while consolidation of Umetrics that was acquired in April 2017 contributed around 1 percentage point to growth. Order intake increased by 11.8% in the same period and included some larger equipment projects.

Regionally, the Americas recorded the highest increase in sales, up 15.3% to 202.0 million euros, relative to a rather low year-earlier revenue base that was impacted by some temporary dampening effects. The EMEA²⁾ region achieved a gain of 9.1% to 252.1 million euros, while Asia|Pacific sales rose 8.9% to 131.6 million euros against high previous-year comparables. (All regional growth rates in constant currencies.)

Earnings in the reporting period also increased substantially: Despite unfavorable currency effects, underlying EBITDA¹⁾ was up by 11.1%, primarily due to economies of scale, from 146.5 million euros to 162.8 million euros. The respective margin rose year over year from 26.8% to 27.8%. Relevant net profit³⁾ for the Group increased overproportionately by 16.4% from 89.1 million euros to 103.7 million euros. This corresponds to earnings per share of 1.12 euros (H1 2017: 0.97 euros).

The company's key financial indicators remained at robust levels. At the end of the reporting period, the company's equity ratio was 61.5% and its ratio of net debt to underlying EBITDA stood at 0.5 (Dec. 31, 2017: 62.6% and 0.4, resp.). The ratio of capital expenditures relative to sales (CAPEX) in the first half of 2018 rose to 15.9%. Investing activities focused on expansion of the plants in Yauco, Puerto Rico, and in Goettingen, Germany. In addition, SSB acquired software-related assets from Sartorius AG, which led to a temporary peak in SSB’s CAPEX ratio that is expected to decrease to projected levels in the second half of the year.