Biotage Interim Report January - June 2018

UPPSALA, Sweden, July 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Second quarter, April - June 2018

• Net sales amounted to 236.1 MSEK (196.3), which is an increase by 20.3 percent compared to the corresponding quarter last year. At comparable exchange rates[1] and adjusted for acquisitions net sales increased by 9.0 percent.
• Operating profit increased by 34 percent to 50.0 MSEK (37.2).
• Result after tax increased by 36 percent to 51.4 MSEK (37.7).
• Earnings per share amounted to 0.79 SEK (0.58).
• The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 24.6 MSEK (43.1).
• Dividends to the shareholders were paid to the amount of 90.6 MSEK (80.9).
• Net cash[1] at June 30 was -13.5 MSEK (101.6). The Group’s cash and cash equivalents amounted to 95.8 MSEK (101.6). Interest-bearing liabilities at the end of the period amounted to 109.3 MSEK (-) relating to loans under a credit facility taken out in connection with the acquisition of Horizon Technology Inc.

Six months, January - June 2018

• Net sales amounted to 444.1 MSEK (381.5), which is an increase by 16.4 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. At comparable exchange rates[1] and adjusted for acquisitions net sales increased by 9.3 percent.
• Operating profit increased by 27 percent to 91.6 MSEK (72.1).Result after tax increased by 32 percent to 96.3 MSEK (73.0).
• Earnings per share amounted to 1.49 SEK (1.13).
• The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 52.7 MSEK (72.2).
• The acquisition of Horizon Technology Inc. was completed on January 16.

[1]See definition pp. 16-17

Comments by CEO Torben Jörgensen
Biotage adds yet another strong quarter with new record figures for sales as well as operating profit. The increased representation by own sales representatives in different parts of the world contributes to Biotage’s continued strong growth. Our subsidiary in India has now been operational during two quarters and despite being in a build-up and transition phase the result is already encouraging, as we have turned the negative trend around. Sales in India in the first six months of the year increased by 170 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. In general Biotage is growing faster than the markets in which the company is active, which means that we are growing our market share.

Biotage’s operations benefit from the current currency situation with a relatively weak SEK. Notwithstanding the currency benefits, sales in both the quarter and the six-month period increased by 9 percent at comparable exchange rates and adjusted for acquisitions. The gross margin for the quarter as well as the six-month period exceeds our strategic goal of 60 percent. Despite a slightly less favorable distribution of the sales between systems and aftermarket products than the corresponding period last year (49/51 percent vs. 48/52 percent) the gross margin for the six-month period remained practically unchanged. The operating margin (EBIT) exceeds 20 percent for the quarter as well as the six-month period and now amounts to 16.4 percent as a rolling average for the last three years.

The integration of Biotage’s latest acquisition, Horizon Technology Inc., proceeds according to plan and we continue to see good opportunities for growing the business over time. By using Biotage’s global sales organization we can increase the proportion of direct sales at the same time as we achieve increased geographic coverage. We also already now see that we are increasing the profitability of the acquired business.

The trend of strong sales of our Isolera™ purification systems continues. The sales of these systems have been strong in China for a long period, but during the quarter we also saw a strong development in the US with a 50 percent increase of sales for these products compared to last year. The development in analytical chemistry is also good and the sales in this product area, which also includes the products from Horizon Technology, are strong.

For a long time we have faced tough price competition on consumables in China from local players. In an attempt to gain market share also in this area, we have introduced consumables for the purification system Isolera™ specially designed for the local market in China. The sales of these have begun to take off and we look forward with interest to see the development going forward.

The initiatives in industrial products continue and during the quarter we launched a UV monitoring kit that improves the user-friendliness of our big purification systems Biotage® Flash 150 and Biotage® Flash 400, for use in the pharma and manufacturing industry.

As we see an increased demand for Biotage’s products we are developing our production units. This above all applies to the manufacturing of consumables in organic and analytical chemistry. Projects are under way to increase the internal production capacity both short term and long term. During the quarter we, among other things, implemented improvements of the production flows and installed larger production modules.

Coming financial reports
The interim report for the third quarter 2018 will be issued on November 6, 2018.
The year-end report for 2018 will be issued on February 7, 2019.
All reports are available at Biotage’s website from the above dates.

This report has not been reviewed by the company’s auditor.

For further information, please contact:
Torben Jörgensen
President and CEO
phone: +46-707-49-05-84

Erika Söderberg Johnson
CFO
phone: +46-707-20-48-20

This information is information that Biotage AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 11.00 CET on July 16, 2018.

About Biotage

Biotage offers efficient separation technologies from analysis to industrial scale and high quality solutions for analytical chemistry from research to commercial analysis laboratories. Biotage’s products are used by government authorities, academic institutions, contract research and contract manufacturing organizations, pharmaceutical and food companies, among others. The company is headquartered in Uppsala and has offices in the US, UK, China, Japan, South Korea and India. Biotage has approx. 400 employees and had sales of 748 MSEK in 2017. Biotage is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm. Website: www.biotage.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/biotage/r/interim-report--january---june-2018,c2576149

The following files are available for download:

 http://mb.cision.com/Main/705/2576149/879077.pdf The full report (PDF) 

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biotage-interim-report-january---june-2018-300681186.html

SOURCE Biotage