2023-09-06 18:04:09
One of the largest German IPOs this year is taking shape: Schott Pharma, the subsidiary of the Mainz glass company of the same name that specializes in syringes and ampoules for medicines, intends to go public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by the end of the year. The management has not yet given any more details on the long-announced step with reference to regulatory requirements. CEO Andreas Reisse described the capital market environment as good when presenting the plans. As a rule, the next steps follow quickly: the stock exchange prospectus should be published in September.
Bernd Freytag
Business correspondent Rhein-Neckar-Saar based in Mainz.
The hesitation – Schott boss Frank Heinricht had spoken of the plans a year ago – is likely to have paid off for the parent company and pushed up the issue price. The share price of Italian competitor Stevanato has doubled since November. The Italians turned over around 20 percent more than Schott Pharma with similar profitability. Based on the market value of 8.2 billion euros, the Schott offshoot should currently be worth a good 6 billion euros – significantly more than at the beginning of the year.
It is not yet known how many shares the parent company will sell, but Schott wants to remain the majority owner. There will be no capital increase: the proceeds from the IPO will go to the parent company. According to Reisse, the IPO will give Schott Pharma “more strategic flexibility and access to the capital markets”. Schott wants to use the money to balance the risk within the group and also to finance the conversion to climate-neutral production, as Heinricht told the FAZ at the beginning of the year.
13 billion vials a year
With a production capacity of 13 billion ampoules, syringes and vials, Schott Pharma is one of the largest manufacturers of “pharmaceutical packaging” in the world. According to Reisse, the market is highly concentrated: Schott, Stevanato and the American pharmaceutical giant Becton Dickinson controlled 60 percent of the business. Each of the thirty largest pharmaceutical companies in the world is a customer of Schott.
Schott Pharma employs 4,700 people and operates 16 plants in 14 countries. In the previous year, sales grew rapidly by 27 percent to 821 million euros, the operating result (Ebitda) even by a third to 219 million euros. Although growth rates have declined since the beginning of the year, Reisse still paints a rosy picture of the future.
In the medium term, he expects annual sales growth of 10 percent, and the Ebitda margin is expected to rise to the “lower 30 percent range”. According to him, growth drivers include new drugs based on mRNA technology; they would have to be frozen. He also mentioned “homecare”, i.e. the administration of medication at home.
The products were in demand during the pandemic
Schott Pharma was in the public eye during the corona pandemic and even had to calm concerns about a shortage of vaccine ampoules. In fact, according to Schott, the “corona boost” was comparatively small: Heinricht put the proportion of corona sales in the pharmaceutical business at 3 percent at the time.
Daniel Mohr Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Markus Schug Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 30 Christoph Scherbaum Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 5
The parent company Schott, like its sister company Carl Zeiss, belongs to the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The foundation has ruled out an IPO for the subsidiaries. However, Schott Pharma would be the second sub-subsidiary to go public: the medical technology manufacturer Carl Zeiss Meditec has been listed since 2002. Schott Pharma’s IPO is supported by BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.
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