WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS

In 2018, WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS lifted its sales by 10.0 percent to €227.0 million (2017: €205.9 million). The increase was mainly driven by volume growth and better prices for some products. The biggest sales gains were posted by pharmaceutical proteins and by the Pharma/Agro business line. In regional terms, sales performance was particularly positive in Germany and the Americas.

At €23.5 million, EBITDA decreased significantly year over year (2017: €37.5 million). This was primarily due to higher raw-material costs, to integration costs for the new sites in León and Amsterdam, and to still-low utilization rates at the new biologics production plant in the Netherlands. The EBITDA margin was 10.4 percent (2017: 18.2 percent).

Capital expenditures climbed year over year to €17.9 million (2017: €15.7 million), a rise of 14.0 percent. Investments focused on expansion and modernization projects at the plants in León (Spain) and Jena (Germany). In addition, in April 2018, we acquired a biopharmaceuticals production site in Amsterdam from SynCo Bio Partners Luxembourg S. à. r. l. The capacity of the two fermentation lines there is 1,800 liters. As a result, WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS doubled its total production capacity for biopharmaceuticals. Due to the acquisition, employee numbers rose to 709 as of December 31, 2018 (Dec. 31, 2017: 533).