Shares in the Swiss chemicals and biotech multinational Lonza soared 6% this week on news of strong half-year sales growth, and reports that integration of Capsugel (which it acquired last year for $5.5 billion) had “exceeded expectations”.
Lonza reported 8.2% organic (like-for-like) sales growth, double-digit organic CORE EBITDA and CORE EBIT growth and continued CORE EBITDA margin improvement during the first half of 2018. One year after the closing of the Capsugel acquisition, sales amounted to CHF 3.1 billion for the Half-Year 2018; and margins for Lonza further improved, resulting in a CORE EBITDA margin of 26% and a CORE EBIT margin of 20.3%.
“The strong organic sales growth and margin improvements – particularly in our businesses along the healthcare continuum – helped us achieve a positive Half-Year 2018 result, which is why we are updating our outlook for the full year,” said Richard Ridinger, CEO of Lonza. “We look back at a successful first year after acquiring Capsugel and see that integration is progressing better than planned, operational and commercial synergies are starting to materialize and healthcare continuum offerings are becoming even stronger.”
He added, “An important part of the successful integration into the Lonza family has been the valuable contribution of Guido Driesen, Capsugel’s former CEO, who helped bring together a strong organization. With integration progressing so well, he is winding down his activities. We are thankful that Guido is prepared to support us even further with his expertise in other projects globally as needed.”
Based on the strong half-year 2018 results, Lonza has upgraded its sales outlook for full-year 2018 to “mid- to high-single-digit growth