Following successful completion of its consolidation, Sartorius intends to shift into high gear: accelerating growth, innovation rate and development speed is on the agenda
Shareholders at the annual shareholders' meeting of Sartorius passed the resolution proposed by the supervisory board and the executive board to pay dividends of 0.50euro per ordinary share and 0.52euro per preference share.
As a result, dividends will increase for a second year in succession (year earlier: ORD: 0.40euro; PRF: 0.42euro).
Both the supervisory board and the executive board were granted discharge by a large majority.
Excerpts from the speech given by the CEO and chairman of the executive board in his address to the shareholders, CEO and chairman of the executive board Joachim Kreuzburg declared that the three-year consolidation phase of Sartorius had successfully ended with the year 2005.
"Since 2002, we have more than tripled our Ebit, more than quintupled net profit and more than halved net debt".
"In the same period, capital expenditures for research and development were raised by over 40%." The CEO continued by saying that the capital market had meanwhile recognized the company's success by sextupling its market value.
"We have come quite a long way in approaching our mid-term financial targets, and have created considerable maneuvering leeway for future organic and strategic growth." For the new development phase of the company, Joachim Kreuzburg focuses his statements on the goal of acceleration.
"For our future business success in an extremely dynamic global environment, speed is increasingly becoming a key competitive factor".
"For this reason, we will now be striving to increase our pace of growth, innovation rate as well as the speed of our development and the ability of our organization to change." Moreover, the CEO announced plans to further strengthen research and development and to double investments in the current year.
Besides further alliances, acquisitions could also contribute to the company's future strategic development.
Kreuzburg assessed the results of the first quarter of 2006 as a successful start into the year 2006.
This first quarter saw double-digit growth rates in sales revenue and in order intake and a boost in earnings (EBIT) by 80.2%.
For the current year, Sartorius is expecting to post gains in sales revenue by more than five percent in constant currencies and an increase in earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) to approximately ten percent of sales revenue.
