Interim report H1-2023: Strong performance and ahead of expectations
Today, Gubra released its interim report for the first half of 2023. Organic revenue grew by 21% year-over-year for the CRO business with an adjusted EBIT-margin of 27%. FY-2023 outlook for organic revenue growth was, as communicated on 15 August 2023, raised to 16-21% (previously around 10%). The 2023 outlook for other parameters remains unchanged (as also communicated on 15 August 2023).
Henrik Blou, CEO of Gubra said:
“The first half of 2023 has been an exciting and productive period for Gubra with strong growth – both in terms of capabilities and revenue. I’m very pleased to see that the expansion is recognized by our customers. In H1, we grew the revenue strongly from our CRO business and we have also raised the revenue expectations for full-year 2023.
Another growth element is acquisitions. In June, we made our first acquisition – the minipig CRO MiniGut which specializes in pre-clinical minipig studies. Minipigs holds significant potential as a non-rodent test species for innovative new medications targeting a number of important disease categories.
In our Discovery & Partnership business, we have added an orexin narcolepsy project to our R&D pipeline. Still early days for that program, but it looks promising and forms an important piece for the promise delivering 1-2 new partnerships per year going forward. In H1, we were also pleased to see encouraging Phase 1 results from our obesity partnership project together with Boehringer-Ingelheim. It will be exciting to follow this program in the years to come.
We now look forward continuing Gubra’s growth journey which includes the establishment of our US office that is expected to open later this year. All in all, we are satisfied with a very strong performance in the first half of 2023 that shows the strength of our hybrid business model with many synergies between the two business segments that are complementing each other nicely.”
Key financial highlights for H1 2023
| Key ratio | CRO segment | D&P segment | Group | |||
| DKK million | H1-2023 | H1-2022 | H1-2023 | H1-2022 | H1-2023 | H1-2022 |
| Revenue | 80.1 | 66.2 | 21.8 | 31.5 | 101.8 | 97.7 |
| Organic revenue growth | 21% | n/a | -31% | n/a | 4% | n/a |
| EBIT | 13.4 | 7.4 | -36.7 | -14.2 | -22.8 | -9.0 |
| Adjusted EBIT* | 21.2 | 18.9 | -30.4 | -5.1 | -9.2 | 13.8 |
| Adjusted EBIT-margin* | 27% | 29% | -140% | -16% | -9% | 12% |
| Total costs adjusted (cost of sales and OPEX)* | -58.9 | -47.2 | -52.3 | -36.6 | -111.1 | -83.9 |
| Amylin costs | n/a | n/a | -10.0 | -1.3 | -10.1 | -1.3 |
| Total costs adjusted less costs for Amylin* | -58.9 | -47.2 | -42.2 | -35.3 | -101.1 | -82.6 |
* Adjusted for special items, which comprise IPO costs, cost recognition of share based incentive programs from 2022 and earlier (non-cash impact) and costs related to Gubra Green.
Key financial highlights for Q2 2023
| Key ratio | CRO segment | D&P segment | Group | |||
| DKK million | Q2-2023 | Q2-2022 | Q2-2023 | Q2-2022 | Q2-2023 | Q2-2022 |
| Revenue | 41.4 | 33.7 | 10.6 | 13.3 | 52.0 | 46.9 |
| Organic revenue growth | 23% | n/a | -20% | n/a | 11% | n/a |
| EBIT | 9.1 | 4.2 | -13.3 | -11.4 | -3.6 | -8.0 |
| Adjusted EBIT* | 9.9 | 9.3 | -12.8 | -7.2 | -2.9 | 2.2 |
| Adjusted EBIT-margin* | 24% | 28% | -121% | -54% | -6% | 6% |
| Total costs adjusted (cost of sales and OPEX)* | -31.4 | 24.3 | -23.2 | -20.4 | -54.6 | -44.8 |
| Amylin costs | n/a | n/a | -1.7 | -1.3 | -1.7 | -1.3 |
| Total costs adjusted less costs for Amylin* | -31.4 | 24.3 | -21.5 | -19.2 | -52.9 | -43.5 |
* Adjusted for special items, which comprise IPO costs, cost recognition of share based incentive programs from 2022 and earlier (non-cash impact) and cost related to Gubra Green.
Outlook for 2023 (revised 15 August 2023)
Our outlook for 2023, which was raised upwards for CRO organic revenue growth on 15 August 2023, is provided in the table below.
| Key ratio | Outlook 2023 | Previous outlook 2023* |
| CRO Segment | ||
| Organic revenue growth | 16-21% vs. 2022 | Around 10% vs. 2022 |
| EBIT-margin excl. special items | Around 25% | Around 25% |
| Discovery & Partnership Segment | ||
| Number of new partnerships per year | 1-2 | 1-2 |
| Total costs** excl. special Items | DKK 105-110 million | DKK 105-110 million |
| Total costs** excl. Amylin and special Items | DKK 85-95 million | DKK 85-95 million |
* Previous outlook refers to the outlook that was prevailing prior to 15 August 2023
** Total costs are cost of sales and operating costs
Conference call
A presentation for analysts and investors will be held today 25 August at 10:00am CET. The event will be hosted by the company’s CEO Henrik Blou, CSO Niels Vrang and CFO Kristian Borbos. The presentation will be held in English.
To participate in the telephone conference, please use the dial-in details shown below:
DK: +45 3274 0710
UK: +44 20 3481 4247
When dialling-in, please state the name of the call “Gubra H1-2023 earnings release” or the conference ID: 9436921.
The presentation can also be followed live via the link:
https://app.webinar.net/6GBbgoOgvPq
It will also be possible to take part of the audiocast afterwards at the same abovementioned link.