Biotage: Interim Report January - September 2019

UPPSALA, Sweden, Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A quarter of records

Third quarter July - September 2019

• Net sales amounted to 282.7 MSEK (232.2), which is an increase by 21.7 percent compared to the corresponding quarter last year. At comparable exchange rates and adjusted for acqusitions¹⁾ sales increased by 8.1 percent.

• Operating profit increased by 42.5 percent to 64.3 MSEK (45.1).

• Result after tax increased by 51.3 percent to 66.6 MSEK (44.0).

• Earnings per share increased to 1.02 SEK (0.68) before and after dilution.

• The cash flow from operating activities increased to 80.0 MSEK (50.7).

• Net debt¹⁾ at September 30 amounted to 127.1 MSEK (-67.6). Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 131.9 MSEK (177.0). Liabilities to credit institutions amounted to 109.5 MSEK (109.4).

Nine months January - September 2019

• Net sales amounted to 812.8 MSEK (676.3), an increase by 20.2 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. At comparable exchange rates and adjusted for acquisitions¹⁾ net sales increased by 8.6 percent.

• Operating profit increased by 24.5 percent to 170.3 MSEK (136.7).

• Result after tax increased by 20.0 percent to 168.3 MSEK (140.3).

• Earnings per share amounted to 2.58 SEK (2.17) before and after dilution.

• The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 135.5 MSEK (103.4).

• Dividends to the shareholders were paid to the amount of 97.8 MSEK (90.6) in the month of May.

• On May 24 the Board of Directors announced that Tomas Blomquist has been hired as new CEO for Biotage effective November 6.

• The acquisition of PhyNexus Inc. was completed on January 15. The purchase price amounted to approx. 21.3 MUSD (approx. 190.6 MSEK²), of this sum approx. 4.8 MUSD (approx. 43.2 MSEK) in cash payment and approx. 6.6 MUSD (approx. 58.6 MSEK) in newly issued shares in Biotage was paid in connection with taking possession. The remaining approx. 10.0 MUSD (approx. 89.3 MSEK) is expected future additional purchase price payments based on future results.

• The issue of consideration shares for the acquisition increased the number of shares in Biotage from 64,714,447 to 65,201,784, which has resulted in a dilution of 0.7 percent for existing shareholders.

1. See definition on pp. 20-21
2. Based on an exchange rate  SEK/USD of 8,93 

Comments by CEO Torben Jörgensen

It has been a great pleasure and responsibility to work as the CEO for Biotage for close to 14 years, and to finish with such a strong quarter as this is of course nothing but fantastic. Once again Biotage sets new records. Never before have the sales been so high. The gross margin and the profitability are also at record level. During the quarter Biotage also achieved something that I personally have been looking forward to; on a rolling 12 months basis Biotage now has a turnover of just over one billion SEK.

All geographic regions with the exception of Europe are now showing growth exceeding 8 percent. This enables Biotage to approach its financial target; an average annual organic growth rate of 8 percent measured over a three year period. At comparable exchange rates and adjusted for acquisitions, sales increased by 8.1 percent in the quarter while the corresponding figure for organic growth reaches 8.6 percent for the first nine months of the year.

The sales in Asia continue to develop positively. We are seeing strong growth all over this region and an outstanding example is China, which now contributes 10 percent of Biotage's global sales.

The increased sales are not achieved at the expense of lower profitability. On the contrary, Biotage is growing with improved profitability. It is worth noting that the gross margin for the quarter as well as for the first nine months exceeds our strategic goal of 60 percent. For the quarter the gross margin increased to no less than 62.8 percent.

The development of our offering in Industrial products continues to be strong. This product area now constitutes 12 percent of Biotage's total sales. It is almost a year since we launched the latest flash-purification platform Biotage^® Selekt together with the new series of consumables, Biotage^® Sfär. As these products are part of Biotage's single largest product area, Purification, it is of course important that the launch is successful. The product area continues to grow, we are gaining market share and we have succeeded to meet the wishes of our customers in the American pharma industry.

Everything has not gone according to schedule and our wishes, however. The new instrument generation for automatic purification of plasmids, which came to Biotage with the acquisition of PhyNexus earlier this year, will not be launched during 2019 as originally planned. We need more time to ensure that the product meets Biotage's high quality standards and the launch has therefore been postponed to next year.

Already in the six months report I wrote that I was looking forward with confidence to the second half of the year. Now we have one quarter left of 2019 and with a strong order book I continue to look positively to the end of the year. As this is my last interim report as CEO I would like to take the opportunity to thank all coworkers, customers, the Board of Directors and the shareholders who have made this journey possible. Biotage has recruited a very good successor to me and as previously announced I will continue on the board of Biotage, and, if the shareholders are willing, as Chairman of the Board for Biotage after the extraordinary general meeting on November 7.

Coming financial reports

An Extraordinary General Meeting will be held on November 7, 2019.
The year-end report for 2019 will be issued on February 7, 2020.
The Annual General Meeting 2020 will be held on April 28, 2020.
The interim report for the first quarter 2020 will be published on April 28, 2020.
The interim report for the second quarter 2020 will be published on July 17, 2020.
The interim report for the third quarter 2020 will be published on November 5, 2020.
The year-end report for 2020 will be published on February 12, 2021.
The Annual Report for 2019 is planned to be made public in week 14 2020.

All reports are available at Biotage's website from the above dates.

Uppsala November 5, 2019

Torben Jørgensen
President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

Torben Jørgensen
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. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 08.30 CET on November 5, 2019.

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 companies, 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. 460 employees and had sales of 911 MSEK in 2018. Biotage is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm. Website: www.biotage.com 

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SOURCE Biotage