NOV / DEC 2024
Merck KGaA “ in a strong strategic position ”
At its latest Capital Markets Day , Merck KGaA said that it is “ in a strong strategic position ” to profit from medium-term growth opportunities in all three of its business sectors after a transitional year in 2023 . “ We committed to return to growth in 2024 and this is materialising already ,” said Belén Garijo , CEO and chair .
In Electronics , the company expects 5-9 % organic growth , up from the previous 3-6 %. Having become a pure play in semiconductors and display systems , the company said that it “ benefits here from its unique position as a supplier of semiconductor solutions that meet the high
Garijo - Merck is already returning to growth demands of chips for artificial intelligence applications ”.
Life Science will also have growth above the market average of 7-9 %, driven by its ability to supply services for new modalities like viral vector-based cell and gene therapies , high potency APIs , antibody-drug conjugates and mRNA applications . This has been revised down slightly from 7-10 % because of lower expectations of China ’ s mid-term growth prospects .
By contrast , Healthcare , the pharma business , will see only “ slight ” growth because of some recent pipeline setbacks . In the long term , the company intends to return to growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range . In addition , Merck said that it is recording growing sales from sustainable products . In Life Sciences , for example , this part of the portfolio has grown by an average of 30 %/ year since 2020 .
For fiscal 2024 , Merck expects sales of € 20.7-22.1 billion and EBITDA before exceptional items of € 5.8-6.4 billion , with organic growth of 5 % and 4-10 % respectively . Capex will remain at € 1.6-1.8 billion to 2026 and then fall , as it had previously risen “ to prepare for medium- and long-term growth trends ”.
The most recent expansion in this respect has been the € 290 million , 23,000 m 2 biosafety testing facility in Rockville , Maryland . It is the largest investment in contract testing in Merck ’ s history and is also driven by growing demand for services for both traditional and novel modalities .
IN BRIEF
New owner for Arcadium Mining giant Rio Tinto has agreed to acquire Arcadium Lithium , the company created by the merger of Livent and Allkem in January , for $ 5.85 / share , which represents a 90 % premium to Arcadium ’ s share price before the deal was announced . The offer values the firm at about $ 6.7 billion . The combined entity will be one of the world ’ s largest lithium producers .
Curia goes for Net Zero Curia has committed to set short- and long-term companywide greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with Net Zero . It will be investing resources over the next two years to evaluate and develop targets for submission to and approval by the Science Based Targets Initiative . It has also joined the UN ’ s Race to Zero campaign , a global coalition working toward halving emissions by 2030 .
Pohang ’ s first shipments Posco Future M has made initial shipments of products from its 30,000 tonnes / year nickelcobalt-aluminium cathode material plants in Pohang , South Korea , which is supplying Samsung SDI with materials for electric vehicle batteries . The company is also building a second 52,500 tonnes / year facility at Gwangyang , which will open in 2025 , and will boost production of single-crystal cathode materials at both sites .
SEP / OCT 2024 SPECCHEMONLINE . COM
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