Biotage AB (publ) Interim report January-September 2020

Strong operating margin with good cost control

July - September

• Net sales amounted to 262.6 MSEK (282.7), a decrease by 7.1 percent and organically* a decrease by 2.7 percent.
• Operating profit amounted to 60.7 MSEK (64.3).
• Operating margin amounted to 23.1 percent (22.8).
• Result after tax amounted to 37.4 MSEK (66.6).
• Earnings per share was 0.57 SEK (1.02) before and after dilution.
• The cash flow from operating activities decreased to 73.7 MSEK (79.9).
• Net cash* at September 30 amounted to 90.2 MSEK (net debt -69.2).
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 316.1 MSEK (185.9).
• Liabilities to credit institutions amounted to 109.7 MSEK (109.6). 
• On August 18, the Board of Directors decided to carry out a new share issue and repurchase of 243,313 class C shares in accordance with the resolution of the Annual General Meeting.
• On August 31 it was announced that the total number of shares increased by 243,313, corresponding to 24,331.3 votes after the new issue of class C shares.

January - September

• Net sales amounted to 794.2 MSEK (812.8), a decrease by 2.3 percent and organically* a decrease by 2.1 percent.
• Operating profit amounted to 146.6 MSEK (170.3).
• Operating margin amounted to 18.5 percent (20.9).
• Result after tax amounted to 130.9¹⁾ MSEK (168.3).
• Earnings per share was 2.01¹⁾ SEK (2.58) before and after dilution.
• The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 191.5 MSEK (135.5).

Major events after the reported period

• Biotage’s Board of Directors does not intend to propose a dividend during the current year.

Comments by the CEO

Good cost control has contributed to a record high operating margin. The Corona virus pandemic (COVID-19) continues to affect society and the challenges of doing business under restrictive conditions are apparent.

Encouragingly, sales increased in all geographic regions during the quarter, except in Japan and the US. Just as earlier in the year, China was responsible for the strongest growth rate in percent. EMEA sales were also strong in the quarter, albeit not fully recovered during the year so far.

Biotage’s largest product area, Organic chemistry, grew by no less than seven percentage points during the quarter and accounted for 54 percent of the quarter’s sales. Accumulated over the year there is an increase of two percentage points to 50 percent. After a long period of growth, sales in the Scale up product area had a loss of revenue among our customers in therapeutic applications of cannabidioles (CBD), especially in America. However, we continue to believe in growth in Scale up.

Biotage is building a stronger market presence in the wake of the Corona pandemic, with a changing need for rapid evaluation of new medicines and vaccines, where Biotage’s product offering is well fitting. The global precision medicine trend also favors Biotage’s products, as it is often about smaller volumes that are to be produced or purified. Sales in the other product areas remained practically unchanged between the comparative periods.

The strong sales of products in Organic chemistry are mainly driven by the sales successes of Biotage’s instruments in China, which also has the consequence that system sales increase relative to sales of aftermarket products (consumables and service). The market for consumables remains very challenging in Asia in general and especially in China. The share of system sales in the quarter increased by three percentage points to 51 percent and are at 48 percent for the nine-month period.

In the third quarter the reported sales were 7.1 percent lower than the corresponding period 2019, which organically was a decrease by 2.7 percent. For the first nine months of the year the corresponding declines were 2.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

The operating margin, EBIT, improved by 0.3 percentage points during the quarter compared to the previous year and amounted to an “all time high” at 23.1 percent.

Significantly reduced travel has a positive effect on the EBIT margin, while the second quarter in particular was burdened by negative operational exchange rate differences negatively affecting the EBIT margin during the nine-month period. For the first nine months the EBIT margin was 18.5 percent.

Biotage is continuously working to improve the cash flow with a very good result during the year. During the year, a major focus has been on increasing the payment rate of outstanding accounts receivable. This has been particularly important given that many customers may encounter liquidity concerns during the ongoing Corona pandemic. We have seen significant improvements in the US, and we are now seeing that the work has yielded results also in Europe. This work continues and the efforts will be intensified also in other parts of the world.

There is still considerable uncertainty as to how quickly the economy and the activities in the various geographies can fully recover. It is still too early to predict with certainty how quickly the operations can return to normal.

Biotage’s strong financial position provides better opportunities to cope with negative external circumstances, but this is of course no guarantee for the future.

Deterioration of our customers’ financial position can also affect their ability to pay, which can lead not only to longer payment times, but also to credit losses long-term.

I believe that Biotage is very well positioned and we continue to invest in our employees, in new products and in the production environment.

The morale in the organization remains high and we now look forward to ending the year 2020 in a positive way.

Uppsala November 5, 2020

Tomas Blomquist
President and CEO

Calendar

All financial reports are published at www.biotage.com

The interim report for Biotage AB (publ) has been issued by the Company's President and CEO Tomas Blomquist after authorization by the Board of Directors.

Uppsala November 5, 2020

Tomas Blomquist
President and CEO

For further information:
Tomas Blomquist, President and CEO
phone: +46 705 23 01 63  

Annette Colin, CFO
phone: +46 703 19 06 76 

This information is information that Biotage AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, on November 5, 2020 at 08:00 CET.

Biotage in brief

Biotage is a Global Impact Tech Company committed to solving society’s problems. We offer workflow solutions and products to customers in Drug Discovery and Development, Analytical Testing and Water and Environmental Testing.

Biotage is contributing to sustainable science with the goal to make the world healthier, greener and cleaner – HumanKind Unlimited.

Our customers span a broad range of market segments including Pharmaceutical, Biotech, Contract Research and Contract Manufacturers as well as Clinical, Forensic and Academic laboratories in addition to organizations focused on Food safety, Clean water and Environmental sustainability.

Biotage is headquartered in Uppsala in Sweden and employs approx. 500 people worldwide.The Group had sales of SEK 1,101 million in 2019 and our products are sold in more than 70 countries.Biotage share (BIOT) is listed in the Mid Cap segment on the NASDAQ Stockholm.
Website: www.biotage.com

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