Seqens Generates €153M FY’23 EBITDA Missing Budget After Weak Q3

Reporting: Robert Schach French pharmaceutical solution and specialty chemicals producer Seqens expects full-year 2024 adjusted EBITDA to fall another 11% from its full-year 2023 results, which missed budget following a third-quarter earnings collapse and subsequent weak fourth-quarter numbers. However, even that looks potentially over optimistic given that the 2024 budget assumes a recovery in active ingredient para-aminophenol, or PAP, earnings that is still far from certain, sources said. Seqens was hit by multiple headwinds in the third quarter, comprising problems at plants in both the U.S. and Israel, a dispute with a client in Belgium, as well as a sharp slide in prices for PAP, all of which continued to impact the group in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter sales came in at €207.9 million, which was significantly below the €352.2 million it had budgeted and the €309.4 million it achieved in the same quarter in the previous year. EBITDA came in at €25.6 million versus €48.5 million budgeted and €57.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 – that figure was boosted by €6.5 million relating to the insurance claim for the fire at its Newburyport plant in the U.S. The group’s cashburn moderated to €11 million during the fourth[...]