Sartorius Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting: Focus on innovation, growth and sustainability
Göttingen, March 25, 2022
On the occasion of its virtual Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting today, life science company Sartorius takes a positive look back at the past year and provides shareholders with details on further growth prospects. “Life sciences and the biopharmaceutical industry are currently in a very dynamic and innovative phase. Significant progress is being made at an increasing pace in the development of advanced therapies, such as cell and gene therapy methods, and mRNA technology is showing great potential as well. At the same time, sustainable megatrends in our target markets are supporting the excellent opportunities for growth. The global population and the number of elderly people is growing, and the need for new and effective medicines is growing along with it,” said Executive Board Chairman and CEO Joachim Kreuzburg. “Major challenges in this respect are the high costs and long timelines that are associated with the development and manufacturing of new biopharmaceuticals. With its innovative technologies, Sartorius plays an important role when it comes to translating new knowledge into effective patient care more quickly and more cost-effectively.”
Fiscal 2021 was extraordinarily positive for Sartorius: Group sales revenue increased by almost 50 percent in constant currencies from the previous year, and the underlying EBITDA1 margin jumped by 4.5 percentage points to 34.1 percent. “We significantly grew in the Lab Products & Services Division as well as the Bioprocess Solutions Division, with high growth rates and new record levels in all product segments and in all regions,” said Kreuzburg. He also addressed the outlook for the current fiscal year, forecasting Group sales revenue in 2022 to increase by about 15 percent to 19 percent and an underlying EBITDA margin reaching the high level of around 34 percent again.
The mid-term targets for 2025, which anticipate sales revenue of around 5 billion euros and an underlying EBITDA margin of around 34 percent, were also confirmed. All forecasts are based on constant currencies.
Kreuzburg confirmed that Sartorius plans to invest between 550 million and 600 million euros in the current year alone in light of the high demand: "We are continuing to invest in expanding our capacities worldwide at full speed."
In addition to short- and mid-term growth prospects, Kreuzburg also addressed the Group’s sustainability strategy. “With our focus on technologies for the rapid and cost-effective development and manufacture of medicines and vaccines, we are directly addressing one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: good health and well-being for all people,” said Kreuzburg. “At the same time, it is necessary to limit the effects of the business on the climate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the best possible way. This is why we introduced the reduction of the CO2 emission intensity as a new performance indicator for the company’s management system at the beginning of 2022.” CO2 emission intensity indicates the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalents in relation to sales revenue. Sartorius plans to reduce this figure, which is particularly meaningful for high-growth companies, by an average of around 10 percent per year, thus reducing it by around 70 percent by 2030. For the corresponding comprehensive measures, the company expects over time additional annual expenses of around 1 percent of Group sales revenue.
1 Underlying EBITDA: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and adjusted for extraordinary items
This press release contains forward-looking statements about the future development of the Sartorius Group. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Sartorius assumes no liability for updating such statements in light of new information or future events. This is a translation of the original German-language release. Sartorius shall not assume any liability for the correctness of this translation. The original German release is the legally binding version.
