Interim report  January - March 2015

First quarter January - March 2015

• Group net sales in the first quarter 2015 amounted to 144.2 MSEK (113.7), an increase by 26.8 percent compared to the corresponding quarter last year. At comparable exchange rates sales increased by 6.1 percent.
• Operating profit for the quarter amounted to 18.0 MSEK (9.5).
• Result after tax for the period amounted to 18.6 MSEK (8.1).
• Earnings per share amounted to 0.29 SEK (0.12).
• The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 23.8 MSEK (10.8).
• Net cash at March 31 amounted to 115.7 MSEK, compared to 95.0 MSEK at December 31, 2014.
• At the end of the reported period Biotage had no holding of own shares. No shares were acquired under the repurchasing program resolved by the 2014 Annual General Meeting.

Comments by CEO Torben Jörgensen

Biotage starts the year with a very strong first quarter. Compared to the corresponding period last year sales increase by 27 percent, which to a large degree is related to the strengthening of the US dollar. At comparable exchange rates the growth amounts to 6.1 percent. We thus continue to grow with an improved profit margin. We exceed our financial goal of an average operating margin at EBIT level of 10 percent. For the first quarter of the year we report an EBIT margin of 12.5 percent and on a rolling 12 month basis we achieve 11.1 percent. Operating profit for the quarter amounts to 18.0 MSEK (9.5), an increase by 90 percent.

The USA continues to develop well and accounts for the biggest growth. Also the operations in China start the year well. In China we have been successful in transferring our focus from contract research companies to more stable academic customers. In Europe the growth is relatively good, but we are now strengthening our sales organization in order to better utilize the market potential. Japan had a very strong first quarter in 2014, to a large extent due to the fact that the customers placed their orders earlier in anticipation of the tax increase that came into effect in April 2014. So even if Japan has had a relatively good first quarter this year, we do not quite reach the same turnover as the first quarter 2014. Biotage’s distributor sales are increasing and above all within EMEA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) we see a healthy growth. We are continuing to evaluate our sales channels in APAC (Asia Pacific) and have started the work to improve sales also in this geographic area.

Our biggest growth area is analytical chemistry and our Sample Prep products. I note with great satisfaction that we now see a double digit growth rate for this product area. There is great interest from our customers for the recently launched technology platform Extrahera™. We have started programs for so-called reagent rental with Extrahera and related consumables. The customer undertakes to buy certain minimum volumes of consumables over a period of time and then gains free access to the Extrahera system. We believe that this will further drive the sales of consumables.

Our single biggest product area, purification, continues to show good growth. Sales in the product area peptide synthesis have been weak for a period. It is therefore encouraging to see a 100 percent sales increase in the quarter, primarily generated in the USA and Japan, compared to the same period last year. Industrial Products sales remain at the same level as in the corresponding quarter 2014.

The gross margin is developing in the right direction and amounts to 55.5 percent (54.3) in the quarter and to 54.8 percent on a rolling 12 month basis. The sales are composed of 44 percent systems and 56 percent aftermarket products (consumables and service).

I have every reason to be satisfied with the start of 2015. Biotage has gradually created an increasingly stronger platform that is now forcefully contributing to a good momentum in the operations. We also have a favorable currency situation as more than half of our sales are in US dollars. I therefore have reason to look to the future with confidence.

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 13.00 CET on April 28, 2015.

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 490 MSEK in 2014. Biotage is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm stock exchange. Website: www.biotage.com

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