(News Bulletin 247) – The specialist in key technologies for the manufacture of vaccines and drugs has once again reduced its revenue and profitability targets while its sales plunged by more than 20% over the first nine months of the year. .

And to think that just two years ago, Sartorius Stedim Biotech was cited as a contender for an entry on the CAC 40.

The specialist in key technologies for the manufacture of vaccines and drugs then benefited (in the 2020 and 2021 financial years) from strong demand for its products used in the composition of treatments against Covid-19. Between 2019 and 2021, its revenues more than doubled, reaching 2.89 billion euros.

But with the improvement in the health context and the transformation of the pandemic into endemic, this demand has evaporated. Furthermore, the company’s customers had placed large orders during the pandemic, anticipating supply difficulties. All this creates a normalization of demand that is quite difficult for society to predict.

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Ebitda almost halved

The 2023 financial year illustrates this very well. Thursday evening, Sartorius Stedim Biotech once again issued a warning on its results, the second after that of last June.

According to preliminary data, the group saw its revenues fall by 21% on a comparable basis to 2.07 billion euros over nine months.

“The main reasons are linked to a longer than expected decline in inventories after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, low production levels at certain customers, the cessation of activities in Russia and an overall level of investment slowly from customers, mainly in China and the United States,” the company develops.

Gross operating profit (Ebitda) stood at 594 million euros, almost halved, with a corresponding margin of 29% compared to 35% over the first nine months of 2022.

As a result, the company reduced its targets for the current financial year, anticipating a decline in sales of nearly 19% and around 14% excluding its Covid-19-related products.

Previously, the group forecast a drop of 10% to 15% in its overall turnover, with a decline “of a percentage between the top of the single digit range and the bottom of the tens range” for the turnover excluding Covid. As for the Ebitda margin, the group now expects it to be “more than 28%” compared to “around 30%” previously.

The company also specifies that it will give indications in January on its forecasts for 2024 and update its ambitions for 2025.

“Management also emphasizes that the dynamics and volatility of the sector have increased significantly in recent years. In addition, uncertainties related to the evolving geopolitical situation, such as emerging decoupling trends in different countries, play a role increasingly important. This results in increased uncertainty when forecasting the development of activities”, also invokes Sartorius Stedim Biotech.

With two warnings in a single financial year, the market, unsurprisingly, welcomes the news with freshness. The action thus plunged 10.4% to 201.1 euros this Friday, showing the biggest drop in the SBF120.