Sartorius upbeat over 2011 results, restructure
2 Feb 2012
Goettingen, Germany – Laboratory and process equipment group Sartorius has reported growth in sales revenue and earnings at both market segments and expects to continue its positive business performance in the current financial year – helped by a divisional restructure.
“Fiscal 2011 was an especially successful year for Sartorius, and not just in financial performance,” said group CEO Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg. “Beyond our financials, we set the stage for the sustainable further development of the Sartorius group within the next decade.
“In order to propel our business forward in an even more focused and flexible way, we have put a new division structure in place at the outset of 2012. For the current year, we also expect dynamic and profitable growth.”
According to preliminary figures, Sartorius generated consolidated sales revenue of Euro733.1 million in fiscal 2011, 11% higher than a year ago. Order intake grew 10% to Euro749.5 million.
Sales revenue for the biotechnology division rose by 10% to Euro476.9 million; order intake, by around 13% to Euro499.8 million, helped by strong demand for single-use products for the biopharmaceutical industry and biotechnological production systems and instruments – the latter especially in Asia.
The group’s mechatronics division posted a gain of 13% in sales revenue to Euro256.2 million, with both businesses for laboratory instruments and industrial weighing and control products expanding at double-digit rates.
The division has also helped by a reduction in its year-earlier order backlog and by the strong upswing in the first half. An increase in order intake of 4.6% to Euro249.7 million was, accordingly, below the rate of sales growth.
Regionally, Sartorius again saw the highest growth rates in the Asia Pacific region. There, sales revenue surged on the whole by 23%. In Europe as well, the company posted substantial gains, with sales up 11%.
In North America, Sartorius increased its sales revenue overall by 6%, with the biotechnology division posting strong gains and the
mechatronics division only slight increases.
The group’s operating earnings (EBITA) rose 31% to Euro112.2 million, while margins climbed from 13.0% to 15.3% – a new high.
The biotechnology division increased its operating earnings by 19% from to Euro83.3 million – contributing just under 75% to operating earnings for the entire group. The division’s operating EBITA margin improved from 16.2% to 17.5%, helped by sales-growth induced economies of scale.
The mechatronics division posted an operating EBITA of Euro28.9 million – nearly double the prior-year earnings – while margins rose significantly from 6.8% to 11.3%. Sartorius linked the gains to economies of scale and a “substantially enhanced” cost base.
Financial outlook
For 2012, Sartorius expects significantly profitable growth for the year 2012, with full-year sales to grow by about 10%, in part due to the initial consolidation of the Biohit liquid handling business that was acquired at the end of 2011. Operating earnings, it said, will likewise increase by around 10%.
“Our business is largely driven by stable trends so we are confident about its development in 2012,” commented Dr. Kreuzburg. “However, we also see that uncertainty over the economy has mounted during the past few weeks.”
As of 1 Jan, 2012, Sartorius reorganised its division structure, which until then consisted of the two divisions biotechnology and mechatronics.
From the first quarter of 2012 onwards, the company will report its business figures according to three segments: bioprocess solutions, lab products & services and industrial weighing.
The new divisions each combine their respective businesses for the same customer groups and fields of application and thus more clearly reflect, and focus on, Sartorius’s major markets.
The three new segments are:
Under the new name of bioprocess solutions, the biotechnology division will concentrate more strongly on its operating and strategic core activities, the bioprocess business for the pharmaceutical industry.
The smaller laboratory business activity of the former biotechnology division has been a part of the new laboratory division since the outset of the year.
The new lab products & services division combines all Sartorius lab product lines into one entire offering. Its largest unit today is laboratory weighing equipment. Besides further laboratory instruments,especially the Biohit liquid handling business that Sartorius acquired in December 2011, a wide range of consumables also belongs to this division.
Business with industrial weighing and control equipment has been conducted since 1 Jan, 2012, by the new industrial weighing division. Concerning this business, Sartorius said it is exploring various strategic options for this division, including a medium-term divestment.
