Return to Organic Growth with Increased Gross Margin
April - June
- Net sales amounted to SEK 504 (409) million, an increase of 23.4 percent and an organic* increase of 9.3 percent.
- EBITDA amounted to SEK 123 (85) million and the EBITDA margin amounted to 24.4 percent (20.7).
- Adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 131 (109) million and adjusted EBITDA margin amounted to 25.9 percent (26.7).
- Operating profit amounted to SEK 77 (53) million and the operating margin was 15.2 percent (12.9).
- Profit after tax amounted to SEK 48 (34) million.
- Earnings per share were SEK 0.60 (0.49) before and after dilution.
- Cash flow from operating activities increased to SEK 34 (16) million.
- Adjusted cash flow from operating activities* increased to SEK 74 (50) million.
- Net cash as of June 30 was SEK 64 million and SEK 335 million as of December 31, 2023, after payment of the KKR earn-out related to the Astrea acquisition (SEK 215 million) and a dividend (SEK 128 million) was paid in the period
January - June
- Net sales amounted to SEK 984 (769) million, an increase of 27.9 percent and an organic* increase of 4.2 percent.
- EBITDA amounted to SEK 234 (165) million and the EBITDA margin amounted to 23.8 percent (21.4).
- Adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 256 (207) million and adjusted EBITDA margin amounted to 26.1 percent (26.9).
- Operating profit amounted to SEK 144 (106) million and the operating margin was 14.6 percent (13.8).
- Profit after tax amounted to SEK 82 (77) million.
- Earnings per share were SEK 1.02 (1.13) before and after dilution.
- Cash flow from operating activities increased to SEK 142 (27) million.
- Adjusted cash flow from operating activities* increased to SEK 245 (118) million.
- On January 4, it was announced that Tomas Blomqvist left his position as CEO and Torben Jørgensen has assumed the role of CEO until a new CEO has been recruited. Kieran Murphy has been appointed Chairman of the Board while Torben Jørgensen is CEO.
- On February 15, the Board decided on new financial targets. The organic revenue goal is focused on double digit growth percent with a profitability aimed toward the upper twenty percent range (Adjusted EBITDA), both averaging over three years.
- On February 15, Andrew Kellett was appointed as permanent CFO after having an interim position since September 11, 2023.
Message from the CEO
A strong second quarter for the Group as a whole brings Biotage back on the organic growth track for the quarter and the first half of 2024. Solid growth in the crucial regions of Americas and EMEA, while APAC and in particular China, still has some challenging headwinds.
It is with great pleasure that I note Biotage is once again continuing to grow organically with increasing profitability. An important part is that Biotage is increasing the proportion of recurring revenues, which accounted for 73 percent of sales. The gross margin increased by 2.2 percentage points during Q2 compared to the same quarter last year, reaching 64.2 percent, which shows that the ongoing improvement work is starting to bear fruit. At the same time, we increased the adjusted EBITDA to 131 (109) MSEK for the quarter and 256 (207) MSEK for the half-year.
Geographically, our largest markets, Americas and EMEA, continued to grow during the quarter. Sales in APAC, primarily in China, have not recovered, and therefore we are making adjustments to staffing in China to better align operations with current market conditions.
Biotage has decided to simplify the reporting of different product areas to only two from Q2 onwards: Drug Discovery & Development and Analytical & Diagnostic Testing. The ambition is to make the company's operations more understandable in reporting where the revenues originate from our customers. On page 20 of this report, you will find a matrix in relation to previous reporting. Organic growth for the quarter in Drug Discovery & Development was 8.5 percent and -2.9 percent for the half-year. The corresponding figures for Analytical & Diagnostic Testing were 10.8 percent for the quarter and 18.1 percent for the half-year. Overall, the Group's organic growth for the quarter was 9.3 percent and 4.2 percent for the half-year.
Drug Discovery & Development (Small Molecules and Large Molecules) had a good second quarter, particularly positive within EMEA and the product area Large Molecules. We have continued to work with our production partner regarding previously reported production capacity constraints in relation to increased demand for our peptide systems. However, we are not yet at the finish line with this work but we expect a successive 50 percent increase of the production capacity over the coming quarters.
Analytical & Diagnostic Testing saw strong growth especially in Americas and APAC. The development and sales of the automatic sample preparation station Extrahera with expanded application areas have been favorable. The market for applications within PFAS remains large and Biotage plans to launch additional products targeting this highly interesting market segment.
During the quarter, product launches of Biotage® PeptiPEC-96, an advanced peptide purification solution, and Biotage® Selekt ELSD, an advanced detection module integrating with Biotage's software products and the Biotage® Selekt purification system, were carried out. Both of these launches are within the product area Drug Discovery & Development- Small Molecules and are expected to be significant contributions to this product area.
Overall, I feel positive and excited about the coming quarters. We are currently experiencing that momentum in the market is starting to improve and Biotage has a strong team doing fantastic work to make the most of this. Biotage is working hard to facilitate our customers' work with the development of today's and tomorrow's products.
Finally, I want to take the opportunity to wish everyone a great summer.
Uppsala, July 16, 2024
Torben Jørgensen
CEO and President
Contacts
Torben Jörgensen, President and CEO
Andrew Kellett, CFO
e: ir@biotage.com
About Biotage
Biotage is the Global Go-To Separations Company, supporting customers from drug discovery and development through to diagnostics and analytical testing with intelligent and sustainable workflow solutions. Our expertise and top-tier separation solutions play a key role in streamlining our customers' workflows and improving their outcomes.
Headquartered in Sweden, Biotage operates globally with 700 employees, serving over 80 countries. Our company is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm (BIOT).
Website: www.biotage.com
This information is information that Biotage 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 2024-07-16 08:00 CEST.
