DARMSTADT (dpa-AFX) – After the recent corporate restructuring, the Darmstadt-based Merck Group (Merck) sees itself well positioned for further growth. In the medium term, the DAX company (DAX) is aiming for an annual organic sales increase in the mid-single-digit percentage range, the group said on Thursday morning at the capital market. Merck is now becoming more optimistic about the pharmaceutical division, which was only strengthened in July through a billion-dollar takeover. The message was only well received on the stock exchange in the first few minutes of trading. After an increase of up to 2.4 percent, it quickly turned negative.
Most recently, the paper fell by around 0.6 percent to 115.75 euros. Merck has recently had a difficult time on the capital market. Since the record high of 231.50 euros at the end of 2021, the price has fallen by more than half. This makes the paper one of the biggest DAX losers during this period. With a market value of just 50 billion euros, Merck is now only in the upper midfield of the 40 DAX stocks. At the end of 2021, the company was still in fifth place with almost 100 billion euros.
“We are clearly committed to growth and are ideally positioned in attractive markets through the interaction of organic investments and targeted acquisitions of companies with groundbreaking solutions,” said Merck manager Belén Garijo, who will hand over the helm to Kai Beckmann, head of the electronics division, in May 2026.
The new portfolio for rare diseases, together with solutions for drug development and the business with semiconductor solutions for the electronics industry, is expected to contribute up to 80 percent of future growth, Merck explained. In addition, the family group wants to become more profitable in its operational business; the margin measured in terms of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) should improve by one percentage point in the medium term. The laboratory division also remains a priority when it comes to takeovers, the manager confirmed to the analysts present.
In the pharmaceutical division, Merck now believes annual organic sales growth in the low to mid-single-digit percentage range is possible in the medium term. As of Capital Markets Day in 2024, Garijo only expected the division to grow slightly. But the group is now focusing more on personalized medicine and rare diseases. In July, the area was strengthened with the approximately 3 billion euro takeover of the US cancer specialist Springworks Therapeutics.
Meanwhile, Merck is planning an organizational realignment of the three areas for its laboratory division, which is currently recovering from the post-Corona downturn, starting next year. In this way, Merck is aligning its marketing strategy closer to the customer and sharpening its focus, it said. The plan is to achieve annual organic sales growth in the mid to high single-digit percentage range in the medium term.
For comparison: Last year, Merck stated seven to nine percent as the target value. The group has already stated several times that it wants to continue to focus on the laboratory division when making acquisitions. So far, comparatively smaller takeovers have taken place, such as Mirus Bio, HUB Organoids and the purchase of the chromatography business of the US company JSR Life Sciences, which was only announced in the middle of the week.
For the Electronics division relating to the business with semiconductor materials, Merck is also aiming for an annual organic sales increase in the mid to high single-digit percentage range. The smallest division of the company is currently benefiting from high demand for artificial intelligence. In the second quarter, however, high provisions and delays in customer projects that had already been promised caused a negative surprise there.
Acting boss Garijo steered Merck through the corona pandemic and initiated several takeovers and sales. However, the self-imposed sales target of 25 billion euros by 2025 is out of reach. Last year, Merck achieved sales of 21.2 billion euros. The company had lowered its forecast twice for 2025. Sales are now still targeted at 20.5 to 21.7 billion euros, as Merck confirmed./tav/als/stk
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