STRATEC POSTS NEW RECORD LEVEL OF SALES AND EARNINGS IN FIRST HALF OF 2021

DGAP-News: STRATEC SE / Key word(s): Half Year Results
06.08.2021 / 07:00
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

STRATEC POSTS NEW RECORD LEVEL OF SALES AND EARNINGS IN FIRST HALF OF 2021

- Sales up by 36.0% at constant currency to € 155.8 million in H1/2021; nominal +30.5%

(H1/2020: € 119.4 million)

- Adjusted EBIT in H1/2021 rises by 87.1% to € 34.5 million (H1/2020: € 18.4 million)

- Adjusted EBIT margin improves by 670 base points to 22.1% (H1/2020: 15.4%)

- New products launched and important development milestones achieved

- Recently raised guidance for 2021 confirmed: Constant-currency sales growth of at least 12.0% and adjusted EBIT margin of around 17.5% to 18.5%

Birkenfeld, August 6, 2021

STRATEC SE, Birkenfeld, Germany, (Frankfurt: SBS; Prime Standard, SDAX) today announced its financial results and major events for the period from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021 with the publication of its Half-Year Financial Report H1|2021.

KEY FIGURES ¹

Adj. = adjusted
bps = basis points

¹ To facilitate comparison, adjusted figures exclude amortization resulting from acquisition-related purchase price allocations and an impairment recognized on a proprietary development project.
² Results from continuing operations.

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
The STRATEC Group generated new record levels of sales and earnings in the first half of 2021 and can report double-digit growth rates and significant increases in profitability in all of its segments (Instrumentation, Diatron, Smart Consumables). Overall, consolidated sales grew year-on-year by 30.5% to € 155.8 million in the first six months of 2021 (H1/2020: € 119.4 million). On a constant-currency basis, this corresponds to organic sales growth of 36.0%. The very high level of growth momentum seen at the beginning of the financial year continued unabated in the second quarter as well (sales growth Q2/2021: constant currency +39.1%). Sales with Systems increased by 43.8% in the first half of 2021 (constant currency: +50.3%), while the Service Parts and Consumables business generated growth of 19.5% (constant currency: +24.7%). STRATEC witnessed ongoing high demand for product groups relevant to COVID-19, while also increasing its sales with systems for routine test applications in the fields of immunohematology and hematology. Furthermore, the company also reported growth with products recently launched onto the market. By contrast, sales with Development and Services decreased in line with expectations, falling by 7.4% (constant currency: -6.2%). The volume of sales recognized for development services is expected to increase once again in the second half of the year.

Adjusted EBIT for the first six months of 2021 rose by 87.1% to € 34.5 million, compared with € 18.4 million in the previous year. Accordingly, the adjusted EBIT margin improved by 670 basis points to 22.1% (H1/2020: 15.4%). This marked rise in profitability was due among other factors to benefits of scale, a strong product mix, measures to enhance efficiency, and, unlike in the previous year, a positive earnings contribution from the Smart Consumables segment. Moreover, the charges resulting from measurement items for stock appreciation rights (SARs) were lower than in the previous year.

Given the company's increased operating profitability, adjusted consolidated net income also improved, in this case by 83.1% to € 28.5 million (H1/2020: € 15.6 million). Adjusted earnings per share (basic) for the first six months of 2021 rose by 81.5% to € 2.36 compared with € 1.30 in the previous year's period. Unadjusted earnings per share (basic) increased to € 2.08, up from € 1.01 in the previous year's period.

To facilitate comparison, key earnings figures have been adjusted to exclude amortization resulting from acquisition-related purchase price allocations and an impairment recognized on a proprietary development project in the Diatron segment. A reconciliation of the adjusted figures with those reported in the consolidated income statement can be found in the Half-Year Financial Report H1|2021 also published today.

FINANCIAL GUIDANCE
To account for the company's better than expected performance in the second quarter of 2021, as well as for updates in its risk adjustments and the resultant partial inclusion of orders for the second half of 2021 that were previously not accounted for, on July 21, 2021 STRATEC adjusted its financial guidance for the 2021 financial year as a whole and published this by ad-hoc announcement. For the 2021 financial year, STRATEC currently expects constant-currency sales growth of at least 12.0%. For its adjusted EBIT margin, the company has forecast a figure of around 17.5% to 18.5%.

The above guidance is based on a planning scenario which assumes that the vaccines currently available will remain highly effective against new virus mutations and that further major waves of infection can be avoided in North America and Europe. Furthermore, STRATEC continues to observe a high level of volatility in its customers' order behavior. This volatility is tending to increase overall. In view of this, several customer orders for the fourth quarter of 2021 are still not incorporated in the above guidance.

Following the completion in 2020 of the construction measures to convert and extend buildings at the Birkenfeld location, STRATEC expects its investment ratio to decrease in 2021. The company expects total investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in 2021 to correspond to around 6.0% to 8.0% of sales (2020: 10.2%).

PROJECTS AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
STRATEC pressed further ahead with numerous development projects, reached important development milestones, and launched new products onto the market together with its partners once again in the first half of 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, for example, the proprietary analyzer platform KleeYa(R) for chemiluminescent immunoassay applications was launched onto the market by the first customer. The KleeYa(R) instrument is highly flexible in terms of its ability to integrate customer-specific reagents and offers superb user-friendliness for end users.

STRATEC's development pipeline is well stocked and also includes projects in highly advanced stages of development. STRATEC therefore expects to launch numerous significant projects onto the market together with its partners in the months ahead as well. The launch of a new molecular diagnostic product family for one of the market leaders in this field, for example, is scheduled for the first half of 2022.

DEVELOPMENT IN PERSONNEL
Including personnel hired from a temporary employment agency and trainees, STRATEC had 1,400 employees as of June 30, 2021 (previous year: 1,335). Compared with the previous year, this corresponds to a 4.9% expansion in the workforce, a development due among other factors to the significant increase in production capacity.

HALF-YEAR FINANCIAL REPORT H1|2021
The Half-Year Financial Report H1|2021 of STRATEC SE has been published on the company's website at www.stratec.com/financial_reports.

CONFERENCE CALL AND AUDIO WEBCAST
To mark the publication of the definitive results for the first six months of 2021, STRATEC will be holding a conference call in English at 2.00 p.m. (CEST) today, Friday, August 6, 2021.

You will receive the dial-in data (telephone number, password + individual PIN) following brief registration at the following link: www.stratec.com/registration

The conference call will also be available at the same time as an audio webcast at http://www.stratec.com/audiowebcast20210806 (brief registration required). Please note that no questions can be submitted via the audio webcast. Clicking this link also enables you to follow or download the slide presentation.

ABOUT STRATEC
STRATEC SE (www.stratec.com) designs and manufactures fully automated analyzer systems for its partners in the fields of clinical diagnostics and life sciences. Furthermore, the company offers complex consumables for diagnostic and medical applications. For analyzer systems and consumables, STRATEC covers the entire value chain - from development to design and production through to quality assurance.

The partners market the systems, software, and consumables, in general together with their own reagents, as system solutions to laboratories, blood banks and research institutes around the world. STRATEC develops its products on the basis of patented technologies.

Shares in the company (ISIN: DE000STRA555) are traded in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and are listed in the SDAX select index of the German Stock Exchange.

FURTHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE FROM:
STRATEC SE
Jan Keppeler | Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Tel: +49 7082 7916-6515
Fax: +49 7082 7916-9190
ir@stratec.com
www.stratec.com

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