REGENSBURG, GERMANY--(Marketwire - August 17, 2010) -
Geneart AG / GENEART AG: Second Quarter / First Half -Year 2010 processed
and transmitted by Hugin AS. The issuer is solely responsible for the
content of this announcement.
· Net sales increase during first half-year and second quarter
2010
· EBIT increased to EUR 92 thousand during the first half (first
half 2009: EUR 26 thousand)
· Net sales and earnings developments within the
expectations for the
financial year 2010
GENEART AG, global leader in gene synthesis and
specialist in the field of Synthetic Biology moderately increased net
sales by
9.9% to EUR 4.5M during the second quarter 2010 (second quarter
2009: EUR
4.1M). During the overall period of the first six months net sales
increased
from EUR 8.1M during the first half of 2009 by about 12% to EUR 9.1M
during the
first half of 2010.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)
increased
to EUR 1.0M, thus exceeding the result of the first half-year 2009 by EUR
0.2M.
As to net sales the EBITDA margin rose from 10.1% to 11.2% during the
first six
months. The EBIT grew from EUR 26 thousand during the first half of 2009
to EUR
92 thousand in the first half of 2010. These developments of net
sales and
earnings are within the scope of the expectations for the fiscal year
2010. The
results of the first half-year were influenced by a one-off special
effect,
resulting from the acquisition of the majority shares by the US-based
Life
Technologies Corporation which caused employee options to be exercised.
This
special effect has no impact on liquidity, however, it increases
personnel
expenses pursuant to IFRS and has an impact of EUR 0.4M on earnings.
The cash flow from operating activities improved during the first half
by EUR
0.6M from EUR -0.3M (first half 2009) to EUR 0.3M (first half 2010). The
cash
flow from investing activities at EUR -0.8M was almost unaltered. The cash,
cash
equivalents and securities, specified as liquidity and financial
securities,
increased from EUR 5.6M as of June 30, 2009 to EUR 7.4M as of June 30,
2010.
The operational development of GENEART AG in the second quarter still
remained
unaffected by the takeover by Life Technologies Corporation. The GENEART AG
team
was able to sustain the growth of the company in what remains a
challenging
environment. For the future GENEART assumes that in the new strong
partnership
with Life Technologies the strengths of GENEART can be optimally
utilized for
the joint development of the new future market of Synthetic Biology.
According to information supplied by Applied Biosystems Deutschland
GmbH,
Darmstadt ("ABD"), Applied Biosystems directly holds more than 95% of the
shares
in GENEART AG. ABD notified the Board of Directors of GENEART AG
accordingly in
a letter dated August 3, 2010. In this letter ABD also notified GENEART
AG of
its request that an extraordinary shareholders' meeting of GENEART
AG may
resolve upon the transfer of shares of the minority shareholders to ABD
against
payment of an adequate cash consideration.
The Board of Directors of GENEART AG intends to comply with this request
and to
convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. This meeting will
presumably
take place at a time in the last quarter of 2010. GENEART AG and ABD also
still
intend to conclude a domination agreement with GENEART AG as dominated
and ABD
as dominating entity. This domination agreement shall be submitted for
approval
to this extraordinary shareholders' meeting.
As to the overall fiscal year 2010 GENEART AG stand by its forecast as a
whole.
Within a normalized economical situation in the second half of 2010 we
intend to
achieve sales of EUR 18.5 to 19.5M and an EBIT of EUR 0.5 to 0.6M.
For further inquiries, please contact:
Dr. Karoline Stürmer
GENEART AG
Josef-Engert-Str. 11
93053 Regensburg
Germany
Phone: (0)941-942 76-417
Fax: (0)941-942 76-711
ir@geneart.com
www.geneart.com
Frank Ostermair
Better Orange IR & HV AG
Haidelweg 48
81241 Munich
Germany
Phone: (0)89-8896906-10
Fax: (0)89-8896906-66
info@better-orange.de
www.better-orange.de
Legal Information:
This document may contain estimates, prognoses and opinions about company
plans
and objectives, products or services, future results, opinions about
these
results or opinions leading up to these results. All these projections
into the
future are subject to risk, uncertainty and unforeseeable change
outside the
control of the GENEART Group. Many factors may lead to actual results,
which
considerably deviate from the given projections for these results.
About GENEART AG:
In 2000 GENEART entered the Gene Synthesis market and has since
become the
global market leader. Today, the company is one of the leading
specialists in
the Synthetic Biology field. Experts at GENEART provide key technologies
for the
development and production of new therapeutics and vaccines. Customers also
take
advantage of GENEART services to customize enzyme attributes, such
as the
attributes of enzymes used as detergent additives, and to construct
bacteria,
which produce complex biopolymers or break down polymers, such as
synthetics,
petroleum components, etc. GENEART's service portfolio ranges from
the
optimization and production of synthetic genes according to DIN EN
ISO
9001:2008, to the generation of gene variants or complex gene libraries
and the
production of cell lines, to the development and production of DNA and
protein
based drug candidates. GENEART AG in Regensburg and its subsidiaries
GENEART
Inc. in Toronto (Canada) and GENEART Inc. in San Francisco (USA) employ
about
180 people. The company is listed on the German Stock Exchange since May
2006.
Since April 2010, U.S.-based Life Technologies Corporation, one of the
leading
biotechnology companies worldwide with 2009 revenues of USD 3.3B and
about
9,000 employees, is the majority shareholder of GENEART AG.
[HUG#1438230]
Geneart AG
Josef-Engert-Str.11 Regensburg Germany
Listed: Freiverkehr in Börse Stuttgart,
Freiverkehr in Börse Berlin,
Freiverkehr in Börse Düsseldorf,
Open Market (Freiverkehr) in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse;
GENEART AG: Second Quarter / First Half -Year 2010:
http://hugin.info/136633/R/1438230/382831.pdf
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Source: Geneart AG via Thomson Reuters ONE
