By: Moderatore on Martedì 22 Giugno 2004 12:41
Stada Slashes 2004 Profit Forecast
By Rachel Graham Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Generic drugs maker Stada Arzneimittel AG (SAZ) Tuesday slashed its profit forecast for 2004, blaming German health care reforms and weak demand in other key markets. Stada said it now expects net profit this year to be roughly at last year's
level of EUR43.9 million after previously forecasting double-digit earnings growth for this year. The profit warning shocked the market, coming after a 23% rise in net profit in the first quarter. At 1122 GMT, Stada shares were down 12.7% at EUR36.50, off its low for the day of EUR34.50.
This appears to bring to an end a run of impressive growth at the company, which increased net profit by 25% last year and more than doubled net profit in 2002. In a statement, Stada cited "massive burdens" from health care policy in its biggest market Germany, which includes a mandatory discount on drugs as part of ongoing reforms. This will cost Stada well over EUR20 million this year, Chief Executive Officer Hartmut Retzlaff told shareholders at the company's annual shareholders meeting in Frankfurt.
Last year, the burden was EUR7.9 million, Retzlaff said. Germany's health care reforms had been expected to have a negative impact the
company, but some analysts had argued Stada would weather the storm better than other research-based drug companies as governments and the European Union are pushing harder for the use of generics in order to keep down costs. Analysts have tended in recent years to point to the growth potential in thegenerics market. A Merrill Lynch research note from April last year estimated drugs with sales at that time of more than EUR7 billion would lose patent protection by 2007.
The same note said generics have strong growth potential in a number of key European markets, as they still account for a low percentage of overall drug sales. In addition to the burden from health care reforms, Retzlaff said Stada is suffering from a price war in several markets. In Germany, competitors are cutting prices in order to increase their market shares, Retzlaff added. Stada said sales this year could still show a double-digit percentage growthon last year's EUR745 million, but this is no longer certain.
In the first five months of the year, sales rose only 7%, Stada said,
indicating a considerable slowdown in April and May. Sales grew 12% in the first quarter. However, sales and earnings will increase again from 2005, Stada said, noting that it sees this year's slowdown as only temporary. Retzlaff said he expects the cost of German health care reforms to fall to more than EUR10 million next year. With regard to the U.S. market, one of Stada's newer markets, Retzlaff said
Stada's growth will be helped by product launches in the fourth quarter.
He also said Stada is currently looking into options for external growth in that market. Stada's biggest competitors in the German market, Ratiopharm GmbH and Hexal AG, aren't publicly traded.
Company Web site: http://www.stada.de