Sartorius, an international partner of the biopharmaceutical industry and research laboratories, acquired through its subgroup Sartorius Stedim Biotech the company MKS Instruments (Umetrics) based in Malmö, Sweden. Umetrics is a specialist in data analytics software for modeling and optimizing biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing processes. Umetrics has already been cooperating with Sartorius for around five years and, in 2017, plans to generate full-year sales revenue of around U.S. $15 million and a significant double-digit operating profit margin. Sartorius purchased the company for U.S. $72.5 million from the U.S. MKS Instruments Group.

In addition, Sartorius successfully completed the acquisition of U.S.-based Essen BioScience signed on March 3, 2017, after receiving antitrust clearance. With Essen’s novel, real-time live-cell imaging and analysis systems, the Sartorius Lab Products & Services Division is significantly expanding its portfolio in bioanalytics, which it entered last year by acquiring IntelliCyt, a cell screening specialist. Essen BioScience is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. For the current fiscal year, the company expects to generate annual sales revenue of around U.S. $60 million and a strong double-digit operating profit margin.

Due to consolidation of these acquisitions, the Sartorius Group is raising its guidance for the current fiscal year as follows:

For the Lab Products & Services Division, Group management projects that, considering the Essen BioScience acquisition and assuming an overall stable economic environment, sales will increase by about 20% to 24% (previously about 6% to 10%) and the division’s underlying EBITDA margin1 will rise by nearly 2 percentage points compared with the prior-year figure of 16.0% (previously about + 1 percentage point).

For the Bioprocess Solutions Division, Sartorius continues to expect that sales will grow by about 9% to 13% and the division’s underlying EBITDA margin will rise by about half a percentage point (2016: 28.0%). The positive growth effect due to the Umetrics acquisition of a good 1 percentage point will be compensated by the somewhat softer customer demand at the beginning of the year as well as by temporarily limited delivery capacities for cell culture media in North America, which are anticipated to have an impact primarily in the first half of 2017.

Based on the updated division forecasts, management projects that Group sales revenue for the full year will grow by about 12% to 16% (previously about 8% to 12%). The company’s underlying EBITDA margin is forecasted to increase slightly ahead of the half a percentage point previously expected. (All forecasts are based on constant currencies.) The capex ratio for the current fiscal year is projected to remain at around 12% to 15%.

“Through the five companies that we have acquired over the past nine months, we have further extended the footprint of both our Group divisions in biopharmaceutical applications considerably. Even though the market environment has leveled off to normal growth levels as expected, we are well on track to achieve our increased annual targets,” said Group CEO Joachim Kreuzburg.