Interim report January - June 2012

Interim report for the period January – June 2012

Second quarter April – June
2012


  · Group net sales in the second quarter 2012 increased by 24 percent to 122.3
MSEK (98.6). At comparable exchange rates sales increased by 15 percent
  · Operating profit in the quarter amounted to 12.9 MSEK (1.8)
  · The result after tax amounted to 13.2 MSEK (2.4)
  · Earnings per share amounted to 0.18 SEK (0.03)
  · The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 15.2 MSEK (15.1)
  · Net cash at June 30 amounted to 158.3 MSEK, compared to 179.4 MSEK at March
31
  · Dividends to the shareholders were paid in May to the amount of 29.3 MSEK
(19.9)
  · After the resolution at the Annual General Meeting on April 27 to cancel all
shares repurchased during previous repurchasing program the number of shares in
Biotage totals 73,255,705. At the end of the reported period Biotage has no
holding of own shares

First six months January – June 2012


  · Group net sales in the first six months 2012 increased by 18 percent to
241.9 MSEK (205.8). At comparable exchange rates sales increased by 11 percent
  · Operating profit in the six month period amounted to 21.5 MSEK (4.4)
  · The result after tax amounted to 21.0 MSEK (3.9)
  · Earnings per share amounted to 0.29 SEK (0.05)
  · The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 32.4 MSEK (62.0)
  · Net cash at June 30 amounted to 158.3 MSEK, compared to 198.4 MSEK at
December 31 2011




Comments by CEO Torben Jörgensen

It’s with satisfaction that I note that we during the first six months have
achieved Biotage’s target of 10 percent sales increase and that we are
approaching the profitability target of 10 percent operating margin. The strong
improvement that we report in the second quarter depends, however, to some
degree on the fact that we compare with relatively weak figures the
corresponding period last year.

Despite operating in a very competitive market, we have managed to increase our
sales and maintain our average sales prices. Together with good cost control
this forms the basis for the considerably improved operating result. However,
the gross margin decreased in the quarter, as a result of the efforts we are
making in growth markets like China and Latin America, among other things.

The American market continues to be Biotage’s biggest single market with 38
percent of the quarter’s sales. The sales in the EU area are increasing their
relative share and amounted to 31 percent in the quarter. Japan contributes 20
percent, China 5 percent and the rest of the world 6 percent of the global net
sales. We have had a good sales development in all regions.

In terms of product areas, the purification products continue to develop well,
and so do the Sample Prep products in analytical chemistry. The traditional
synthesis products show a slower sales growth, while the peptide synthesis
products show steady growth. The evaporation products have not lived up to our
expectations during the quarter, with decreasing sales figures.

In the second quarter we have completed our pilot scale plant in Lund and
continued to work with our purification and separation projects in production
scale.

We launched only one new product line in the quarter, and this one specifically
for the Japanese market. The product launches carried out in the first quarter
of the year have been successful. New product launches will take place in the
third quarter, of instruments as well as consumables. We are following our
strategy to increase the relative share of sales consisting of consumables. In
the second quarter service and consumables contributed 58.8 percent of the total
sales, compared with 57.4 percent in 2011.

Biotage continues to have a strong financial position with net cash at mid-year
amounting to 158 MSEK, which gives us freedom of action concerning acquisitions,
repurchasing of shares and dividends.



For further information, please contact:
Torben Jörgensen, President and CEO, phone: +46 707 49 05 84
Erika Söderberg Johnson, CFO, phone: +46 730 50 80 56

The information in this press release is of the kind that Biotage AB (publ) is
required to make public according to the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The
information was released for publication at 08.00 on August 17, 2012.

About Biotage
Biotage offers solutions, knowledge and experience in the areas of analytical
chemistry and medicinal chemistry. The customers include the world’s largest
pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and leading academic institutes. The
company is headquartered in Uppsala and has offices in the US, UK, China and
Japan. Biotage has approx. 270 employees and had sales of 428.1 MSEK in 2011.
Biotage is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Stockholm stock exchange. Website:
www.biotage.com