First Half Results 2020

Released: 11/09/2020 – 12.21 GMT
Kedrion S.p.A.
 

Covid-19 spotlight

In February 2020, Italy was one of the first European countries to be heavily hit by the new Coronavirus affecting all the countries of the world, including the United States and Hungary, the two countries where, together with Italy, the production sites and plasma centers of Kedrion are located, and where most of the company's employees are based.

Employees and patients are the main focuses of Kedrion S.p.A, so the company quickly implemented contingency plans, creating a Covid-19 Global Response Team composed of almost all corporate functions (in particular EHS, HR, Operations, Quality & Regulatory, Medical Area, Communication).

The Response Team has focused on two objectives: to safeguard workers and to safeguard business continuity in order to keep alive the supply chain towards our patients.

Public authorities worldwide considered plasma derivatives industry (which is the Kedrion sector) as crucial and vital (this also applied to the plasma centers in the United States and Hungary, considered a strategic infrastructure not included in the lockdown policies).

In order to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, Kedrion extended the possibility to all employees not involved directly in manufacturing activities, to work from home. In this way, the company protected its plasma plants and centers, whose safety was considered a vital issue.

For employees who are not included in the home working program, policies of social distancing and sanitization and cleaning of the environments have been rigorously implemented. Where proper social distancing was not possible, employees have been equipped with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and have been continuously updated on emergency management and good practices to be adopted.

Regarding the business continuity intended in a broad sense (Operations, Maintenance, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain, Engineering, etc.), the company has kept close contact with its entire supply chain to monitor any critical aspects also concerning the processes not directly governed (for example the purchase of plasma from third parties, storage and transport operations, the distribution of products in countries where the activity is indirect).

Today, a “return to normality” plan is in the process of being implemented, maintaining all safety measures.

Finally, the Kedrion Research and Development department has been activated and is involved in projects aimed at developing effective therapies against Covid-19 using convalescent plasma.

More specifically, Kedrion is working with Kamada Ltd. in the development, test and distribution of a new IgG therapy for COVID-19. Under this framework, Kedrion has activated a research partnership with Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Kedrion will supply Columbia with convalescent plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and Columbia University will test the convalescent plasma against viral proteins to check the neutralizing power of the hyper immune Immunoglobulins.

 

 

Kedrion reported EBITDA increases of about 39% reaching EUR 58.1 million driven by United States plasma derivatives sales

Castelvecchio Pascoli (Lucca, Italy), 11 September 2020 – The Board of Directors of Kedrion S.p.A., a biopharmaceutical company that collects and fractionates blood plasma to produce and distribute plasma-derived therapeutic products, has today approved the financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2020.

The following key figures are reported on a consolidated basis.

Kedrion S.p.A continues to tackle the current global crisis caused by COVID-19. In the first half of 2020, revenues reached EUR 336.7 million with a decrease of about 7.5% compared to the same period in 2019. This decrease is mainly due to lower sales of plasma to third parties linked to plasma availability reduction due to COVID-19 partially offset by a good performance in the plasma derivatives segment in the United States with an increase of about 21% compared to the same period in 2019.

The COVID-19 situation is still uncertain and difficult to predict in the long run but Kedrion S.p.A will continue to monitor any potential impacts and will take all necessary actions to mitigate any potential effect. Based on the information that the company has today, it is estimated that Kedrion’s plasma collection expect to have a negative impact of about 10% in terms of plasma availability during the full year 2020.

The Adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 74.4 million (22.1% of revenues) vs EUR 76.1 million of previous year (20.9% of revenues) with an increase on marginality due to a greater weight of plasma derivatives segment in particular in the US market.

The reported EBITDA1 has grown to EUR 58.1 million (17.3% of revenues) by increasing 38.9% its value compared to last year (EUR 41.9 million in 2019). This result has been possible especially thanks to the reduction of non-recurring costs (-52.7% vs 2019) despite the COVID-19 situation the whole world is facing.

The net working capital has increased to EUR 337.8 million in the first half of 2020 (EUR 352.8 million same period 2019) from EUR 286.8 million at the end of 2019.

Kedrion made total investments for EUR 31.7 million in particular in the plasma segment where four acquisitions of plasma centers have been completed. As of 30 June, the Group’s network included 33 plasma collections centers.

The increase in net working capital and the investments made during this first six months of the financial year 2020 drove Kedrion’ s net financial position2 to EUR 501.2 million excluding the impact of IFRS 16 with EUR 78.2 million in cash and EUR 110.5 million in undrawn credit lines.

The net financial debt over EBITDA ratio was 3.27 times.

For further information, please write to [email protected]

 

READ THE UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AS AT 30 JUNE 2020

1. Including IFRS16 impact of EUR 6.0 million in 2020 and EUR 4.3 million in 2019
2. As of June 30 2020, the net financial position including the impact of IFRS16 amount of EUR 575.4 million