Evotec positive about results

Evotec OAI has announced its financial results for the six months to the end of June 2003.

Its revenues grew by 5% in the first six months of 2003 to €34.8m (US$39.4m). At constant exchange rates, revenue growth was 16%. Despite the adverse impact of currency, Evotec maintain its Euro growth target of 10-15% for the full year 2003.

Third-party revenues in its Discovery and Development Services Division (DDS) amounted to €28.0m (US$32m). Sales fell in the first quarter due to the one-off impact of revenues being deferred from Q4 2001 into Q1 2002, but in the second quarter revenues in the division grew by 5%, at constant exchange rates by 20%. This was supported by strong sales in discovery biology, partly because of a significant new hit-finding and profiling contract with Novartis.

As anticipated, third-party revenues in 'Evotec Technologies', its tools and technologies segment rose strongly, up by 58% to €6.9m, mainly attributable to the successful installation of the first EVOscreen Mark III system at Pfizer in the first quarter and the extension of the system for cellular screening in the second quarter 2003.

'All parts of Evotec OAI enjoyed a strong performance in the first half of 2003, despite continued challenging market conditions and exchange rate pressures from the strong Euro against the Dollar and Sterling' said Joern Aldag, president and ceo of Evotec OAI. 'Based on proactive cost management and strong sales performance across our different products, we achieved our goal of positive EBITDA and we are confident of maintaining this for the full year. Discovery and Development Services continued to deliver excellent results for customers, outperforming most of our peers. Continuing revenue growth, solid delivery on customer projects and instrument deliveries to Pfizer and other partners are expected to boost second half revenue performance. We are encouraged by the recent drug discovery collaboration announced with Takeda in the area of Alzheimer's Disease. It strongly validates our investment into this high-value discovery programme over the past four years and our strategy to become actively involved in selected fields of drug discovery alongside a partner.'