Sartorius sees revenue and sales growth in 1H and raises full year forecast

Sartorius finished the first half of 2015 with increased sales, higher operating profits and a surge in orders that prompted it to raise its full year forecast.

The biopharma tech supplier posted revenue of €535.3m ($581.4m), an increase of 16% on the equivalent period in 2014, and operating profit of €90.8m, which is up 56.5% on the year-earlier period.

The gains were driven by growth in all of Sartorius’ business segments. Bioprocess solutions sales increased 20% and laboratory products and services revenues climbed nearly 7%. The firm also saw sales growth in the US, Europe and Asia.

CEO Joachim Kreuzburg said bioprocess solutions had done better than expected in an expansive market environment, citing North American growth as encouraging.

He also said lab products were on “a robust growth trend, despite the uneven economic situation.”

Forecast

Sartorius also saw increased orders in the six months to the end of June.

Bioprocessing tech orders amount to €427m, up 27%, while laboratory equipment and service order grew 1.1% to €149.9m.

The order increase – coupled with the expected contribution from recent acquisitions BioOutsource and Cellca – prompted Sartorius to increase its full year revenue and earnings forecast.

Kreuzburg said: “We project that in constant currencies, sales including revenue contributed by acquisitions will grow in the range of 12%, and our underlying EBITDA margin will reach around 22.5% for the full year.”