REGENSBURG, GERMANY--(Marketwire - May 27, 2010) - Geneart AG / GENEART AG: First Quarter 2010 processed and transmitted by Hugin AS. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
- Net sales increase by about 13% to EUR 4.6M
- EBIT improves to EUR 79 thousand in the first Quarter (previous year: EUR 9 thousand)
- Net sales and earnings developments are on schedule with budget for the whole business year
Regensburg, May 27, 2010 -- GENEART AG, global leader in gene synthesis and specialist in the field of Synthetic Biology, increased its net sales during the first quarter 2010 by about 13% from EUR 4.0M to EUR 4.6M compared to the previous year’s reference period. EBITDA reached EUR 0.5M and thus exceeded the result of the first quarter 2009 by EUR 0.1M. Based on net sales, the EBITDA margin increased during the first three months from 9.8% to 11.7%. EBIT reached EUR 79 thousand during the first quarter (previous year: EUR 9 thousand). The EBIT margin therefore increased from 0.2% to 1.7%.
Due to investments in Research & Development and the increase of the automation level over the last two years, production capacities have been expanded and production costs per unit were reduced further. Simultaneously, these investments resulted in higher budgeted depreciation and thus in initially higher fixed costs. Although material costs increased slightly in absolute figures during the first quarter, the cost of material ratio was lowered slightly from 24.0% to 22.0% compared to the previous year’s reference period due to several mid-size orders, among other factors. Increased utilization of production capacities resulted in a decrease of the personnel cost ratio by 7.5 percentage points from 55.3% to 47.8% during the reporting period. The ratio for other operating expenses was reduced as well.
Approximately 87% of net sales were generated by the segment Custom Gene Synthesis & Services during the first quarter, and the remainder by the Downstream Services segment. 57% of total net sales were allocated to Europe, 34% to North America, and 9% to the rest of the world.
GENEART continues to follow its long-term growth strategy in 2010. However, budgeting and forecasting for 2010 is impeded by a continually challenging economic environment and the cautious behavior of customers when placing major orders related thereto, as well as short-term purchasing attitudes. Therefore GENEART expects moderate business growth for the first six months of 2010. The economic environment is expected to improve during the second half of the year, and the associated return to higher growth rates. On the earnings side, GENEART pursues further flexibilization of its cost structures and additional reduction of production costs per unit to be able to meet short-term demand fluctuations. Assuming an overall more normal economic situation during the second half of 2010, GENEART expects net sales between EUR 18.5M and 19.5M and EBIT between EUR 0.5M and EUR 0.6M for the current fiscal year.
For further inquiries, please contact: Dr. Karoline Stürmer GENEART AG Josef-Engert-Str. 11 93053 Regensburg Germany Phone: (0)941-942 76-417 Fax: (0)941-942 76-711 ir@geneart.com www.geneart.com Frank Ostermair Better Orange IR & HV AG Haidelweg 48 81241 Munich Germany Phone: (0)89-8896906-10 Fax: (0)89-8896906-66 info@better-orange.de www.better-orange.de
Legal Information:
This document may contain estimates, prognoses and opinions about company plans and objectives, products or services, future results, opinions about these results or opinions leading up to these results. All these projections into the future are subject to risk, uncertainty and unforeseeable change outside the control of the GENEART Group. Many factors may lead to actual results, which considerably deviate from the given projections for these results.
About GENEART AG:
In 2000 GENEART entered the Gene Synthesis market and has since become the global market leader. Today, the company is one of the leading specialists in the Synthetic Biology field. Experts at GENEART provide key technologies for the development and production of new therapeutics and vaccines. Customers also take advantage of GENEART services to customize enzyme attributes, such as the attributes of enzymes used as detergent additives, and to construct bacteria, which produce complex biopolymers or break down polymers, such as synthetics, petroleum components, etc. GENEART’s service portfolio ranges from the optimization and production of synthetic genes according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008, to the generation of gene variants or complex gene libraries and the production of cell lines, to the development and production of DNA and protein based drug candidates. GENEART AG in Regensburg and its subsidiaries GENEART Inc. in Toronto (Canada) and GENEART Inc. in San Francisco (USA) employ about 180 people. The company is listed on the German Stock Exchange since May 2006. Since April 2010, the US-American Life Technologies Corporation, one of the leading biotechnology companies worldwide with 2009 revenues of USD 3.3B and about 9,000 employees, is majority shareholder of GENEART AG.
[HUG#1419047]
--- End of Message ---
Geneart AG Josef-Engert-Str.11 Regensburg Germany
ISIN: DE000A0JJ4L4; Listed: Freiverkehr in Börse Stuttgart, Freiverkehr in Börse Berlin, Freiverkehr in Börse Düsseldorf, Open Market (Freiverkehr) in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse;
