Samsung Biologics Q3 OP nearly doubles, cumulative sales top $1.4 bn

[Provided by Samsung Biologics]

South Korea’s Samsung Biologics, backed by the world’s largest drug contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) capacity from the latest addition of a fourth factory, achieved sales milestone of 2 trillion won ($1.4 billion) as of September.

The company in its regulatory filing on Wednesday said its operating profit for the third quarter reached 157.3 billion won on a consolidated basis, gaining 91.39 percent from a quarter ago and 93.98 percent from a year earlier largely owing to sharp depreciation in the Korean won versus the U.S. dollar.

Its net profit fell 15.05 percent on quarter and 1.98 percent on year to 129.2 billion won, while sales added 34.02 percent from three months ago and 93.69 percent against the previous year to total 873 billion won.

Increased product sales and weakening Korean won drove the earnings growth in the third quarter, according to Samsung Biologics.

Cumulative sales from January to September amounted to 2.04 trillion won, exceeding 2 trillion won for the first time since founding in 2011.

Samsung Biologics shares were trading 1.12 percent lower at 886,000 won in Seoul trading at 9:47 a.m. Thursday after closing the previous session 1.36 percent higher at 896,000 won.

As of the third quarter, the company reported 16.09 trillion won in assets, 8.61 trillion won in equity and 7.48 trillion won in liabilities. Its debt ratio was at 86.9 percent.

Samsung Biologics this month started partial operation of its plant 4 in Songdo, Incheon, with the world’s largest capacity of 240,000ℓ after 23 months of construction. Once it becomes fully operational by next year, the company’s total capacity expands to 604,000ℓ to cement its leadership in the global CDMO industry.

The contract development organization (CDO) business also is going well, with the launch of new high-yield bispecific antibody platform S-DUAL. Order book stretched to $8.5 billion worth – 73 CMO contracts and 100 CDO deals.

Separately, its biosimilar unit Samsung Bioepis announced on the same day its third-quarter operating profit reached 77.9 billion won on sales of 269.8 billion won. It has come under full ownership of Samsung Biologics in April.

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