REGENSBURG, GERMANY--(Marketwire - April 29, 2010) -
Geneart AG / GENEART AG: Group Results 2009 processed and transmitted by Hugin AS. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
-- GENEART confirms preliminary results of EUR 17.2M in net sales and EBIT of EUR 0.3M
-- First quarter of 2010 within expectations
-- Outlook 2010 with net sales between EUR 18.5M and 19.5M and EBIT between EUR 0.5M and 0.6M
Regensburg, April 29, 2010 - Despite the challenging economic environment GENEART AG continued its growth in 2009 and increased net sales by 9.6% from EUR 15.7M to 17.2M. The curbed growth compared to the previous year is due to cautious behaviour of the most significant customers of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries as well as the research sector, in particular with respect to placing major orders. GENEART managed in compensating this effect by securing small and mid-sized orders and slightly increased net sales in all quarters compared to the respective reference periods of the previous year; fourth quarter net sales increased by 20.7% to EUR 4.8M.
EBIT totalled EUR 0.33M (previous year: EUR 0.82M) in 2009. Earnings before tax reached EUR 0.4M compared to EUR 1.1M in the prior year. Profit per share for 2009 is EUR 0.04 compared to EUR 0.15 in the prior year. The results were affected by the economic situation and therefore by the cautious behaviour of the most significant customer groups. Particularly noted were an increase in the material cost ratio, due to lowered prices in gene synthesis, and lower other operating income, a result of slightly decreased third-party funding.
The cash flow showed a positive trend. Although the profit did not reach prior year’s level, cash flow from current operations increased from EUR 2.8M to EUR 3.0M. Cash flow from investments improved from EUR -4.8M to EUR -3.8M. This includes the acquisition of guaranteed bearer bonds, which were classified as investments in accordance with IFRS. In business terms, however, these are not investments but are considered as liquidity and thus increased the free cash flow from EUR -2.0M to EUR 1.2M. Liquidity increased from EUR 6.8M to EUR 7.8M.
The trend of an overall steady development of net sales for the entire year 2009 continued into the current fiscal year. Based on preliminary figures, GENEART generated net sales of EUR 4.57M during the first quarter of 2010, compared to EUR 4.04M in the previous year’s reference period, and increased net sales by about 13%.
GENEART continues to follow its long-term growth strategy in 2010. However, planning and forecasting for 2010 is impeded by a continually challenging economic environment, a cautious behaviour of customers with respect to placing major orders and a short-term spending pattern. Due to this continued cautious behaviour when placing major orders GENEART expects moderate business growth for the first six months of 2010. The economic environment is expected to improve during the second half of the year, together with an associated return to higher growth rates. On the earnings side, GENEART pursues further flexibility of its cost structures and additional reduction of production costs per unit to be able to meet short-term demand fluctuations. Assuming an overall normalised economic situation during the second half of 2010, GENEART expects net sales between EUR 18.5M and 19.5M and EBIT between EUR 0.5M and EUR 0.6M for the current fiscal year.
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, the US-American Life Technologies Corporation, one of the leading biotechnology companies worldwide with 2009 revenues of 3.3B U.S. dollars and about 9,000 employees, is majority shareholder of GENEART AG.
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Geneart AG Josef-Engert-Str.11 Regensburg Germany ISIN: DE000A0JJ4L4; Listed: Freiverkehr in Börse Stuttgart, Freiverkehr in Börse Berlin, Freiverkehr in Börse Düsseldorf, Open Market (Freiverkehr) in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse;
GENEART AG Group Results 2009: http://hugin.info/136633/R/1409649/362152.pdf
