Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, increased its sales, expanded its EBITDA pre-margin and met all the financial targets it had set for itself in 2020.
Group sales increased in 2020 by 8.6% to €17.5 billion. Organically, sales increased by 6%. EBITDA pre, the most important financial indicator to steer operating business, rose by 18.6% to €5.2 billion; the EBITDA pre-margin increased to 29.7%. The operating result EBIT increased dramatically by 40.8% over the previous year to €3 billion. Net financial debt decreased by 13% to €10.8 billion in 2020.
The company noted that gains were highlighted by pharmaceutical manufacturing from the Life Science business sector, the new medicines Mavenclad and Bavencio approved in recent years, and the Semiconductor Solutions business.
“The year 2020 was characterized by unprecedented turbulence. Yet despite the circumstances of the pandemic, we resolutely executed our strategy further and achieved truly superb business results,” said Stefan Oschmann, chairman of the Executive Board and CEO.
During the pandemic, the company supported more than 50 vaccine projects and recently announced plans to expand its strategic partnership with BioNTech and to significantly accelerate the supply of urgently needed lipids, which are used to manufacture the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.
In 2020, the company moved forward with the implementation of its priorities.
“We have resolutely pursued our ambition: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is to become the vibrant science and technology company,” said Oschmann.
Performance Materials continued to implement the Bright Future transformation program and has focused its business on the electronics market. This includes the launch of a new, customer-centric organization within the Semiconductor Solutions business unit. To underscore the business sector’s strategic focus on the electronics industry, effective immediately it will operate under the name “Electronics.”
“The new name Electronics sums up what this business is all about, namely technologies that advance digital living,” said Oschmann.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, group sales increased by 5% compared to the prior-year quarter. EBITDA pre rose by 3.3% to €1.2 billion, earnings per share pre increased 1.9% to €1.57.
Sales of the Electronics business sector, which previously operated under the name Performance Materials, rose by 31.3% to €3.4 billion in 2020. The acquisitions of Versum Materials and Intermolecular contributed 35.4% to the growth of Electronics. The Display Solutions business unit, consisting mainly of the business with liquid crystals, photoresists for display applications and OLED materials, saw an organic sales decline of 11.7% in fiscal 2020.
