The Siegfried Group reports sales of 1.102 billion Swiss francs (1.054 billion Euros) for the 2021 financial year, the highest in its corporate history. This corresponds to sales growth of 30.5 percent in Swiss francs and 30.3 percent in local currencies.

Core EBITDA (CHF 207.2 million, +38.8%), Core EBIT (CHF 124.4 million, +32.0%) and Core net profit (CHF 93.6 million, +29.0%) developed very positively. Core EBITDA and Core EBIT again grew rela tively stronger than sales compared to the previous year. This was reflected accordingly in an increase in margins: the core EBITDA margin was 18.8% (previous year: 17.7%).

Sales of 1102.4 million Swiss francs are composed of 656.0 million Swiss francs Drug Substance and 446.4 million Swiss francs Drug Product sales.

The two pharmaceutical manufacturing sites acquired from Novartis, Barberà del Vallès and El Masnou, made a significant contribution to the substantial growth in the reporting period The two sites located near Barcelona have been part of the Siegfried Group since 1 January 2021, and very well complement the global network. They not only provide a significant increase in capacity and an expansion of the technological possibilities for the production of pharmaceutical finished products, but also a more balanced ratio between the two divisions Drug Substances (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and Drug Products (finished dosage forms). The Drug Products sales contribution increased from about 25 percent in 2020 to about 40 percent in the year under review.

The integration of the two sites is proceeding according to plan and making good progress. In the future, Siegfried will concentrate a significant part of pharmaceutical development services in Spain. The establishment of a Center of Excellence for pharmaceutical formulation development, including extensive investments, began last year and will be completed by the end of 2022.

Following intensive preparatory work, the filling line for BioN-Tech-Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty went into operation at Siegfried's Hameln site in the second half of the year. With the rapid provision of the highly specialized line, Siegfried has demonstrated its ability to solve technologically demanding tasks even at short notice and to quickly build up the necessary capacities. In addition to BioNTech, the US biotech company Novavax also relies on Siegfried for the aseptic filling of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid.

Siegfried expects sales growth in the high single-digit to low double-digit percentage range for the current year. In addition, Siegfried expects the core EBITDA margin to exceed the 20 percent threshold in 2022, subject to exchange rate fluctuations and unforeseen consequences of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In the medium-term, Siegfried expects a further increase in sales and profitability, and therefore plans to invest in additional development and production capacity in the coming years. Overall, Siegfried expects annual CapEx spend in the low teens percentages of sales.