GRÜNWALD (dpa-AFX) - Surprisingly good business in the first half of the year makes drugmaker Dermapharm more confident for 2023. Sales and adjusted operating profit should reach the upper end of forecasts, the company surprisingly announced Wednesday in Grünwald. Contributing to the board's optimism are new group subsidiaries Arkopharma of France and Montavit of Austria. On the stock market, the statements and the preliminary figures were well received.

The Dermapharm share gained almost six percent to 45.40 euros in the morning and was thus the biggest winner in the small cap index SDax. Industry expert Alexander Thiel of investment house Jefferies was positively surprised by the company's profitability, and his colleagues at Pareto Securities see the manufacturer on track to meet its annual targets.

Compared to the turn of the year, the share has now gained more than a fifth in value. At the beginning of June, however, it was still trading a bit more expensive at 48.50 euros. And at the beginning of 2022, investors had paid around twice as much for the stock with prices of up to 91.95 during the Corona vaccine boom.

Dermapharm CEO Hans-Georg Feldmeier now expects sales of around 1.11 billion euros in 2023. This is the upper end of the issued target range, which envisages at least 1.08 billion euros at the lower end. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted Ebitda) adjusted for special items are now expected to reach the upper end of the range of 300 to 310 million euros. Analysts surveyed by the Bloomberg news agency, however, already had somewhat more on the cards for both key figures.

In the first half of the year, Dermapharm posted sales of 582 million euros, up nearly a quarter from a year earlier, according to preliminary figures. Adjusted operating profit grew by 13 percent to 168 million euros. However, including special charges of 31 million euros, it declined by around 4 percent to 137 million euros.

"The drivers of sales and absolute earnings growth are our French subsidiary Arkopharma and encouragingly strong organic growth in our existing business," said CEO Feldmeier. Although production of the Corona vaccine for the Mainz-based manufacturer Biontech declined as expected in the second quarter, an increase in sales of other products had a positive effect. However, this was cushioned by increased sales of other products, the statement added.

Nevertheless, a smaller portion of Dermapharm's sales remained as adjusted operating profit. The adjusted operating margin fell from 31.6 to 28.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

However, after the boom of the Corona years, the company's top management had announced a decline in earnings for 2023 anyway. Sales are expected to exceed the record EUR 1.025 billion achieved in 2022. However, adjusted operating profit is expected to fall well short of the 360 million euros achieved in the previous year.

From July, however, the Tyrolean pharmaceutical company Montavit is expected to make a positive contribution to sales and operating profit. Dermapharm acquired the manufacturer of products for urology, gynecology and allergy therapy at the end of June. Dermapharm plans to publish its final half-year figures on August 29./stw/knd/mis