Gerresheimer’s global pharma business develops well during COVID-19 pandemic

The company generates revenue of EUR 363 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Gerresheimer generated revenues of EUR 363 million in the second quarter of 2020, marking 4.6 per cent organic growth in the core business compared to the same quarter of the prior year. The global pharma business has developed well in the current COVID-19 pandemic. This benefited Gerresheimer, too, with its primary packaging for liquid and solid drugs, syringes and drug delivery devices such as insulin pens and asthma inhalers. There is currently demand from many pharma companies, in particular for injection vials for future vaccination campaigns against COVID-19. Gerresheimer has already invested heavily in quality and capacity in this business in 2019 and 2020 and will continue to do so. This means the company will be very well prepared to support the vaccination campaigns. Gerresheimer sees additional medium-term to long-term opportunities in the pharma business as a result of the pandemic. Temporarily reduced demand for high-quality perfume flacons has been more than offset by increased demand for drug packaging and drug delivery devices.

The second quarter of 2020 saw adjusted EBITDA increase on an organic basis by 6.9 per cent to EUR 84 million. Adjusted net income came to EUR 38 million in the second quarter of 2020. In the same period adjusted earnings per share after non-controlling interests amounted to EUR 1.18. The strong second-quarter free cash flow of EUR 45 million was used to reduce net debt relative to the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA leverage decreased from 3.4x at the end of the first quarter to 3.2x as of May 31, 2020.

“As a key supplier to the pharma and healthcare industry, we have significant responsibility for ensuring patients worldwide to receive the medication they need. We have guaranteed this over the past few months and maintained our delivery capacity at all times. New growth opportunities are now opening up for us in the pharma business. We are prepared for the strong demand for injection vials for the forthcoming vaccination campaigns and are additionally expanding capacity. As planned, we aim to maintain the growth which we saw in the second quarter. We are working continuously to implement our strategy for profitable and sustainable growth. To that end, we are investing in quality, capacity, digitalization, new markets and smart new drug delivery products,” said Dietmar Siemssen, CEO, Gerresheimer.