GÖTTINGEN (dpa-AFX) - The biotechnology supplier Sartorius has started the new year with declines in sales and profits. Customers are continuing to reduce their inventories. However, the process is at an advanced stage in the core business with consumables, as Sartorius CEO Joachim Kreuzburg explained on Thursday when presenting the figures for the first quarter. At the same time, he observed a pronounced reluctance to invest on the part of customers, especially in China and to some extent also in Europe. Sartorius confirmed its expectations for the current year and continues to anticipate a moderate first half-year and a gradual increase in business momentum.

The share nevertheless came under considerable pressure. With a discount of over ten percent, the Sartorius share fell below 300 euros to its lowest level in the current year. It was thus also the biggest loser in the Dax. The downward trend of recent weeks accelerated. The discount since the beginning of the year has widened to 12 percent and the record high of just over 600 euros reached in December 2021 has receded even further into the distance.

UBS analyst Matthew Weston was particularly disappointed by the development of the Bioprocess division. Here, Sartorius offers products for biopharmaceutical refrigeration, such as freezer containers and thawing systems. Not only did sales revenue fall short of expectations, Weston wrote, but orders here declined instead of increasing.

In the Group as a whole, on the other hand, incoming orders, adjusted for exchange rate effects, increased by almost ten percent to a good 826 million euros compared to the same period last year, as the company announced in Gottingen. However, the corresponding turnover fell by 7.6 percent to almost 820 million euros, which was worse than analysts had estimated. In nominal terms, the decline was 9.3 percent.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell by 13.8 percent to 234 million euros. The corresponding margin fell from 30.1 to 28.6 percent, which was better than analysts had expected. Here, Group CEO Kreuzburg is still hoping for a tailwind from cost reductions for the year as a whole. Adjusted for special effects, Sartorius earned 70 million euros in the first quarter, 40 percent less than in the previous year.

For the year as a whole, sales revenue is expected to increase in the mid to upper single-digit percentage range and the adjusted operating margin to rise again to just over 30 percent. Last year, the margin fell to 28.3%, after it had stood at 33.8% in 2022 and was thus approaching the target of 35% originally set for 2025. This figure is now being targeted for 2028.

The boom during the coronavirus pandemic was followed by a massive slump in demand for the Gottinger company, which caused business to slow down for an unexpectedly long time and led to a slump in profits last year. However, demand has picked up again since the end of the third quarter of 2023 /lew/nas/jha/