Wed, Mar 13th 2024
Sandoz, now an independent entity, celebrates a year of growth, setting sights on heightened sales and margins for 2024.
The generics specialist Sandoz grew in 2023 and is forecasting further sales growth and higher margins for 2024. This is the former Novartis subsidiary’s first annual financial statement as an independent company.
Last year, Sandoz generated sales of 9.65 billion US dollars, an increase of 6% compared to 2022. At constant exchange rates, the increase would have been 7%.
Of the two divisions, the generics business contributed 7.43 billion (+4%), while the much more lucrative biosimilars business generated 2.22 billion (+15%).
Sandoz has declared its intention to increasingly focus on high-quality biosimilars and complex generics in order to boost profitability.
Core EBITDA, which is adjusted for various factors, amounted to 1.74 billion, a decline of 10%. Sandoz puts the corresponding margin at 18.1% (previous year: 21.3%).
Sandoz had already announced the decline earlier, citing inflation and investments in the establishment of Sandoz as an independent company. The bottom line was a core net profit of USD 953 million, which is 22 percent below the previous year’s figure.
Shareholders are to participate in this with a dividend of CHF 0.45 per share. This means that the company is distributing 24% of its profit and is within the promised payout range of 20% to 30% of core net profit.
For the current year, the Basel-based company is targeting net sales growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range at constant exchange rates. The core EBITDA margin is expected to be around 20%.
©Keystone/SDA
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