Interim report  January - March 2014

First quarter January – March 2014

• Group net sales in the first quarter 2014 amounted to 113.7 MSEK (103.2), an increase by 10.2 percent. At comparable exchange rates sales increased by 10.4 percent compared to the corresponding quarter 2013.
  
• Operating profit for the quarter amounted to 9.5 MSEK (6.1).
  
• Result after tax for the period amounted to 8.1 MSEK (3.1).
  
• Earnings per share amounted to 0.12 SEK (0.04).
  
• The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 10.8 MSEK (15.2).
  
• Net cash at March 31 amounted to 87.4 MSEK, compared to 85.0 MSEK at December 31, 2013.
  
• During the quarter 9,274 own shares were acquired under the repurchasing program resolved at the 2013 Annual General Meeting. At March 31, 2014 Biotage had a total holding of 5,146,883 own shares acquired for 46.7 MSEK at an average purchase price of 9.07 SEK per share. The board has proposed to the Annual General Meeting that the repurchased shares shall be cancelled.

Comments by CEO Torben Jörgensen

Biotage opens 2014 just as well as we ended 2013. We achieved a strong first quarter with a sales increase exceeding 10 percent, in reported figures as well as at comparable exchange rates. I am also pleased that we increased the operating profit for the quarter by 55 percent to 9.5 MSEK, compared to 6.1 MSEK the corresponding period 2013.

All product areas developed positively compared to the corresponding period last year. Our product area Purification continues to be the major contributor to the good sales development. We increased our instrument sales in this area by 26 percent. Industrial Resins continues to develop well. We are seeing an increasing number of customers entering into research collaborations with us and increased product sales. This is the case not least in Japan, where these products are a contributing factor to the strong first quarter results of our Japanese subsidiary.

Sales in our two most important geographical areas in terms of turnover, Europe and the United States, developed well. Japan also achieves a strong first quarter, which to some extent can be explained by the fact that our first quarter is the last one of Japan’s fiscal year. An increase of the Japanese VAT from 5 to 8 percent also came into effect on April 1, which motivated some Japanese customers to place their orders earlier. In our distributor business we are seeing some glimpses of light, even if this is not a clear trend. In Brazil and India weakened local currencies are limiting the business opportunities. China is also having a somewhat weaker quarter. Our direct sales in China is in transition from contract research customers to academic and government customers, this work is expected to continue throughout the year.

The distribution of sales between systems (43 percent) and consumables and service (57 percent) remained unchanged from the preceding quarter.

The gross margin amounted to 54.3 for the quarter and to 55.6 percent on a rolling 12 month basis. The relatively weaker gross margin for the quarter is partly explained by the strong product sales in the product area Purification.

We report an operating margin of 8.3 percent. On a rolling 12 month basis the operating margin amounts to 9.4 percent, an improvement by 0.6 percentage units compared to the end of 2013.

   
For further information, please contact:
Torben Jörgensen, President and CEO, phone: +46 707 49 05 84                                  
Erika Söderberg Johnson, CFO, phone: +46 707 20 48 20

The information is of the kind that Biotage AB (publ) is required to make public according to the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was released for publication at 15.00 on April 28, 2014.

About Biotage
Biotage offers efficient separation technologies from analysis to industrial scale and high quality solutions for analytical chemistry from research to commercial analysis laboratories. Biotage’s products are used by government authorities, academic institutions, pharmaceutical and food companies, among others. The company is headquartered in Uppsala and has offices in the US, UK, China and Japan. Biotage has approx. 290 employees and had sales of 445 MSEK in 2013. Biotage is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm stock exchange. Website: www.biotage.com

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