Shares down 12.00% (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Frankfurt, 19 Jul - Shares in Sartorius were sharply lower after the German pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment supplier cut its full-year guidance.

At 0848 GMT, Sartorius was down 12.00% to 173.00 euros.

The company said that in the first half sales totalled 1.680 billion euros, down a reported 3.2% and 2.2% at constant currency rates.

In the first half of 2024, order intake was up 8.5% in constant currencies, and rose a reported 7.5%, to 1.558 billion euros.

Underlying net profit fell to 148 million euros from 202 million euros in the first six months of 2023. Underlying earnings per ordinary share were 2.15 euros, down from 2.95 euros, and 2.16 euros per preference share, down from 2.96 euros.

Against a backdrop of continuing subdued demand, Sartorius now expects sales revenue for 2024 to remain at the prior-year level, within a range of a low single-digit negative to low single-digit positive sales variation.

Previously, sales growth was forecast in the mid to high single-digit percentage range.

Sartorius now projects an underlying EBITDA margin of 27-29% in the full year, down from a previous forecast of slightly above 30%.

"The actual mixed and volatile business development following the pandemic and the resulting limited predictability of short-term business development have no impact on the fundamentally positive growth drivers of the life science and biopharmaceutical markets. This is also underlined by latest data on market approvals and clinical pipelines which are very positive, particularly in the field of modern therapies such as cell and gene therapeutics. Accordingly, the company is currently not changing its mid-term targets up to 2028," the company added.

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(RADIOCOR) 19-07-24 11:00:26 (0212) 5 NNNN