EQS-News

STRATEC REPORTS RESULTS FOR 2023 FINANCIAL YEAR - Seite 3

Given the reduction in operating earnings and a year-on-year increase in the tax rate, adjusted consolidated net income for the 2023 financial year fell to € 16.7 million, compared with € 34.7 million in the previous year. Adjusted earnings per share (basic) amounted to € 1.37 (2022: € 2.86).

For comparison purposes, the earnings figures for 2023 have been adjusted to exclude amortization from purchase price allocations in the context of acquisitions, as well as for other one-off items (consulting and reorganization expenses in connection with M&A activities and one-off personnel expenses). In the previous year, earnings figures were additionally adjusted to exclude a provision for expected back payments of tax (including interest payments).

FINANCIAL GUIDANCE
For the 2024 financial year, STRATEC expects end customer demand for molecular diagnostic automation solutions to remain at a low level both temporarily and on a full-year basis, with this being due to the additional laboratory capacities built up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this lower level of market demand is currently being partly satisfied by higher volumes of stocks at STRATEC’s customers. STRATEC nevertheless expects these stock levels to normalize by the middle of 2024 and that the resultant slight rise in market demand among end users will be reflected in STRATEC’s delivery volumes. Furthermore, demand remains as robust as ever in all of STRATEC’s other business areas for which no significant additional capacities arose during the pandemic, such as immunodiagnostics, immunohematology, and hematology.

Overall, for 2024 STRATEC therefore expects sales on a constant-currency basis to remain stable or to grow slightly compared with the previous year. The adjusted EBIT margin is forecast at around 10.0% to 12.0% (previous year: 10.3%). Due in particular to the stock issue referred to above and to a year-on-year reduction in the volume of sales realized from development work, STRATEC expects to post a highly subdued level of momentum for its business performance in the first quarter of 2024. Subsequent to this, the latest order forecasts received from customers, among other factors, indicate a very distinct recovery in the sales performance from the second quarter of 2024 and thus a return to positive scale and product mix effects.