DGAP-News: Celesio AG: Celesio increases revenue and earnings in Q1 2010
(firmenpresse) - Celesio AG / Quarter Results
12.05.2010 07:00
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- Brazilian wholesaler Panpharma strengthens earnings of the Pharmacy
Solutions division
- Considerable revenue growth in the mail-order business
- Manufacturer Solutions on a good path
Stuttgart, 12 May 2010. Celesio, one of the leading international service
providers within the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets, increased its
revenue and operating profit (EBITDA) in the first quarter of 2010 compared
to the previous year. Revenue rose by 10.8 per cent to 5.7 billion euros
(an increase of 9.7 per cent in local currency). EBITDA improved by 6.0 per
cent to 153.2 million euros (a rise of 4.1 per cent in local currency).
This rise above all reflects the good performance of the Pharmacy Solutions
division as well as the first-time consolidation of the Brazilian
wholesaler Panpharma. The net profit rose by 2.5 per cent to 59.5 million
euros. The group remains optimistic for the full year, despite expected
governmental measures.
'We are looking back on a good first quarter of 2010 overall', Celesio CEO
Fritz Oesterle said. 'Despite high burdens from governmental measures in
some countries, our solid and broadly positioned business model allowed us
to increase our EBITDA.'
In the first quarter of 2010, Celesio entered the Swedish pharmacy market
as announced. 'Once the state monopoly on pharmacies was lifted in the past
year, we began taking advantage of the growth opportunity this opened up',
Oesterle stated. 'In light of the very good performance of the first few
weeks, we will accelerate our efforts in Sweden and we aim to open 30 to 40
of our own DocMorris pharmacies this year, as opposed to the 20 to 30
originally planned.' There are more than 100 DocMorris pharmacies planned
in Sweden over the medium term.
'The success of the steps we have taken in the past year can also be seen
in the wholesale business', Oesterle said. The Brazilian wholesale company
Panpharma has shown a promising development. 'With our market entry in
Brazil, we noticeably diversified our currency portfolio and, at the same
time, reduced our relative dependence on the British pound as announced.'
Development within the divisions
The Patient and Consumer Solutions division generated revenue of 854.4
million euros in the first quarter. This beat the previous year's figure by
4.5 per cent (increase of 1.6 per cent in local currency). This was largely
a result of the 3.3 per cent increase in revenue of the Retail Pharmacies
business area to 783.2 million euros.
Celesio operated 2,301 retail pharmacies on 31 March 2010. This was 31
fewer than on 31 March 2009.
The division's EBITDA fell by 17.5 per cent to 59.4 million euros (decrease
of 20.1 per cent in local currency). This was attributable to the
development in the Retail Pharmacies business area. EBITDA of this business
area fell by 19.4 per cent to 59.2 million euros (decrease of 22.0 per cent
in local currency) as expected due to the negative impact that governmental
measures had on earnings and the start-up costs for the expansion of
Celesio's Swedish pharmacy chain.
The operating business showed a robust performance in the most important
pharmacy market, the UK. Lloydspharmacy contributed 62.3 per cent to the
Retail Pharmacy business area's revenue in the first quarter. However,
earnings at Lloydspharmacy were burdened by a combination of the
discontinuation of positive effects from the previous year and newly
implemented governmental measures. Against the backdrop of good revenues
within the over-the-counter segment, the business in Norway, Celesio's
second most important pharmacy market, performed well.
Revenue in the Mail-order Pharmacies business area rose considerably with a
20.2 per cent improvement to 70.1 million euros. The largest mail-order
pharmacy, DocMorris, was able to lift its revenue significantly. Here,
DocMorris benefited from the good business with prescription medicines. The
mail-order pharmacies in the UK and Norway, which are still in the start-up
phase, also showed promising performances. This illustrates the growth
potential of the mail-order pharmacy business model, also at an
international level.
EBITDA of the Mail-order Pharmacies business area, which was strained by
expenses for advertising activities on the part of Apotheke DocMorris in
the previous year, reached 0.6 million euros (previous year minus 0.6
million euros).
Revenue of the Pharmacy Solutions division rose by 10.8 per cent to 4,659.8
million euros (increase of 10.1 per cent in local currency). This was
impacted by the 10.8 per cent rise in revenue of the Wholesale business
area to 4,658.5 million euros. The revenue growth was driven by the
first-time consolidation of Panpharma as well as the good business
development in Germany, the UK and Austria.
Compared to revenues, the EBITDA of Pharmacy Solutions rose
disproportionately high by 22.5 per cent to 107.9 million euros (increase
of 21.6 per cent in local currency). Excluding currency and consolidation
effects, the increase amounted to 7.4 per cent. In the Wholesale business
area, EBITDA improved by 22.9 per cent to 108.3 million euros. This was
likewise particularly a result of the additional profit contributions from
the Brazilian wholesaler Panpharma. In the period under review, the fact
that Celesio's wholesale activities have a broad international positioning
and can therefore easily balance out any challenging developments in
individual countries paid off overall. One example is France, where
wholesale has been negatively influenced by high discount competition. In
the UK, the operating performance was good compared to the previous year
despite lowered medicine prices.
Celesio operated 136 wholesale branches as of 31 March 2010, which comes
out to 15 more than on the same date last year. The reason for this lies in
the inclusion of Panpharma branches in Brazil, Laboratoria Flandria
locations in Belgium and Vitapharm branches in Slovenia, all of which were
acquired in 2009.
The Manufacturer Solutions division saw its gross profit rise to 99.4
million euros after 38.8 million euros in the same period last year as a
result of the inclusion of the pharmexx Group, which has been fully
consolidated since July 2009. pharmexx contributed 56.4 million euros to
the gross profit of the division. Gross profit of the Movianto business
area climbed by 10.2 per cent to 42.6 million euros (increase of 9.3 per
cent in local currency).
EBITDA of the division rose from 1.7 million euros to 3.9 million euros.
The pharmexx business area contributed 1.7 million euros here. EBITDA in
the Movianto business area rose by 23.6 per cent to 3.1 million euros.
Financial and asset position
After the Q1 reporting date, Celesio placed a volume of 500 million euros
in corporate bonds with private and institutional investors for the first
time on 16 April 2010. Following the placement of the convertible bond in
the past year, this bond issue underscores the company's long-term-oriented
refinancing strategy. Group financing is thus based on a more stable and
broadly diversified foundation, bank debt will be repaid and, at the same
time, the maturity profile of liabilities is improved.
Earnings forecast
The Management Board of Celesio AG remains optimistic for the year 2010.
After anoverall positive development of the first quarter, Celesio
nevertheless anticipates to achieve a year-on-year increase in group EBITDA
also on a euro basis in 2010. This forecast is based on the assumption that
there are no unexpected major shifts in the exchange rates of Celesio's
major foreign currencies. The acquisitions made in the previous year will
have a positive effect on earnings in 2010. Furthermore, Celesio plans to
reduce its net financial debt to below 2 billion euros.
Key figures of the Celesio Group
Q1 2009 Q1 2010
Revenue EUR m 5,116.9 5,668.3
EBITDA EUR m 144.5 153.2
Earnings
before tax EUR m 89.5 91.2
Net profit EUR m 58.0 59.5
Earnings per share EUR 0.34 0.34
Employees* 37,947 46,968
Retail pharmacies* 2,332 2,301
Wholesale 121 136
branches*
Change on Change in
a local
EUR basis currency
in % in %
Revenue 10.8 9.7
EBITDA 6.0 4.1
Earnings
before tax 2.0 -0.2
Net profit 2.5 0.0
Earnings per share 1.3 -1.2
* Values refer to the date at the end of the reporting period
Press contact:
Rainer Berghausen, Celesio AG, +49 (0)711.5001-549
media(at)celesio.com
About Celesio Group:
Celesio is one of the leading international service providers within the
pharmaceutical and healthcare markets. The company is active in 26
countries worldwide and employs approximately 47,000 people in its three
divisions Patient and Consumer Solutions, Pharmacy Solutions and
Manufacturer Solutions. Approximately 2,300 of Celesio's own retail
pharmacies, as part of Patient and Consumer Solutions, serve over 550,000
customers every day. In its wholesale activities, which are part of
Pharmacy Solutions, around 140 wholesale branches deliver to over 65,000
pharmacies - day in, day out. In the Manufacturer Solutions division,
Celesio offers pharmaceutical manufacturers logistics and distribution
solutions and supports them in sales and marketing.
12.05.2010 07:00 Ad hoc announcement, Financial News and Media Release distributed by DGAP. Medienarchiv atwww.dgap-medientreff.deandwww.dgap.de---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language: English
Company: Celesio AG
Neckartalstr. 155
70376 Stuttgart
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)711 5001-735
Fax: +49 (0)711 5001-736
E-mail: investor(at)celesio.com
Internet: www.celesio.com
ISIN: DE000CLS1001
WKN: CLS100
Indices: MDAX
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Berlin, Frankfurt (Prime Standard),
München, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart; Freiverkehr in Hannover,
Hamburg; Terminbörse EUREX
End of News DGAP News-Service
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Datum: 12.05.2010 - 07:00 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 20713
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