GENEART Boosts Earning Power While Sales Continue to Grow in the
First Nine Months of 2007
- Total revenue up by 105 percent
- Operating result increased by 95 % to Euro 1.4M
- GENEART well on track regarding net sales and earnings forecast for
2007
- Improved DNA-based therapeutics and vaccines through GENEART
technology
Regensburg, November 14, 2007 - GENEART AG, the world's leading
producer of synthetic genes and specialist in the field of synthetic
biology, continued its growth trend in net sales and earnings in the
first nine months and in the third quarter of 2007.GENEART has
advanced the production of synthetic genes to an industrial level.
This step by step replaces older, time and cost-intensive genetic
engineering methods, some of which have been in use for as many as 30
years. Owing to the new technologies, GENEART AG has become a more
and more important R&D partner in the pharmaceutical, chemical and
biotechnology industry, as well as for public research institutions.
Clear indicators of this positive trend are the GENEART AG net sales
figures, which have increased in the first nine months of the current
business year from Euro 5.7M to Euro 9.0M. Relative to the same
period in the previous year, this is an increase of 57 %. Relative to
total revenues, the GENEART AG grew by 105 percent in the first nine
months and even by a whopping 136 percent in the third quarter.
The uptrend in earnings is particularly pleasant. This trend
emphasizes the sustainability of the GENEART earning power and along
confirms the exceptional role of the company in the German
biotechnology sector. In the first nine months of the current year,
the GENEART AG increased its operating result by 95 % to Euro 1.4M.
In the third quarter the operating results increased by 204 %. The
net income after interest and taxes for the first nine months were
Euro 1.6M. The net income for the equivalent period last year were
approximately minus Euro 1.5M. This negative figure is, however, in
part explained by the extraordinary effects of the IPO and the
repayment of silent partners. Based on the achieved 9-monthresult,
GENEART considers itself well on track with regard to the expected
net sales between Euro 12.5M and 14.0M and the expected EBIT between
Euro 2.0M and 2.4M.
The company has also met the self-set objectives for operational and
technological progress in the first nine months and in the third
quarter of 2007. The planned capacity increase continues as
scheduled. The production capacity will have doubled once again by
the end of this year, bringing it up to two million base pairs per
month. In addition, GENEART has developed and implemented a new
technology module for the production of particularly complex genes.
This gives GENEART the capability to produce even very complex gene
sequences cost-effectively in a high-throughput process.
The EuroVacc Foundation Project for the development of a HIV vaccine
shows another kind of future dynamics in addition to the established
GENEART service business, and outside already existing projections:
GENEART has optimized and synthesized two HIV vaccine candidates
which have been further developed by Sanofi-Pasteur and the RIMMH
(Regensburg Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene). The two
vaccine candidates have successfully passed phase I clinical trials.
GENEART owns basic patent applications for these two vaccine
candidates and has granted a research license to the EuroVacc
Foundation. More information about this project will be published in
the fourth quarter. This example shows how the GENEART expertise and
technology - when bolstered by a savvy patent strategy - can be used
to generate additional sales and earnings opportunities, while
excluding the potential project risks inherent in clinical approval
processes. The company also plans on using such license-driven
exploitation strategies for the results of the research project
'Autonomous Gene Evolution' and for a novel method of gene
optimization ('CpG Optimization'). Independent of the HIV vaccine's
success in the approval process, the project strikingly demonstrates
the great value of the GENEART gene optimization and gene synthesis
technology for pharmaceutical research.
GENEART AG (Group) Performance in the First Three Quarters of 2007
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Data in Million Euro | 01/01 - 09/30 | 01/01 - | Change |
| | 2007 | 09/30 | |
| | | 2006 | |
|------------------------------+---------------+-----------+--------|
| Net Sales | 9.0 | 5.7 | 56 % |
| Total Revenues | 11.7 | 5.7 | 105 % |
| Gross Profit | 8.8 | 4.7 | 87 % |
| EBIT | 1.4 | 0.7 | 95 % |
| EBIT Margin on Sales | 15.6 % | 12.5 % | --- |
| Net Income | 1.6 | -1.5 | --- |
| Employees at the End of the | | | |
| Third Quarter | 184 | 71 | 159 % |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
For further inquiries, please contact:
Bernd Merkl
GENEART AG
Josef-Engert-Str. 11
D-93053 Regensburg
Germany
Phone: +49-(0)941-942 76 - 638
Fax: +49-(0)941-942 76 - 711
ir@geneart.com
www.geneart.com
Frank Ostermair
Better Orange IR & HV AG
Haidelweg 48
D-81241 München
Germany
Phone: +49-(0)89-88 96 906-10
Fax: +49-(0)89-88 96 906-66
info@better-orange.de
www.better-orange.de
Legal Information
This document may contain estimates, prognoses and opinions about
company plans and objectives, products or services, future results,
opinions about these results or opinions leading up to these results.
All these projections into the future are subject to risk,
uncertainty and unforeseeable change outside the control of the
GENEART Group. Many factors may lead to actual results, which
considerably deviate from the given projections for these results.
About GENEART AG
In 2000, GENEART entered the gene synthesis market and has since
become the global market leader. Today, the company is one of the
leading specialists in the synthetic biology field. Experts at
GENEART provide key technologies for the development and production
of new therapeutics and vaccines. Customers also take advantage of
GENEART services to customize enzyme attributes, such as the
attributes of enzymes used as detergent additives, and to construct
bacteria, which produce complex biopolymers or break down polymers,
such as synthetics, petroleum components, etc. Our production and
service spectrum spans a wide range, from the production of synthetic
genes according to DIN EN ISO 9001-2000, to the creation of gene
libraries in the combinatorial biology, to the development and
production of DNA-based biologically active substances. The GENEART
AG in Regensburg (Germany) and the subsidiary GENEART Inc. in Toronto
(Canada) employ more than 180 people. Since May 2006, GENEART is
listed on the German Stock Exchange.
