Carl Zeiss Meditec achieves significant increase in sales and earnings in fiscal year 2018/19

Jena/Germany | Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

In fiscal year 2018/19, Carl Zeiss Meditec generated revenue of €1,459.3m, resulting in an increase of 13.9% (adjusted for currency effects: +11.7%) compared with the same period of the prior year (prior year: €1,280.9m). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose significantly, to €264.7m (prior year: €197.1m). The EBIT margin was 18.1% (prior year: 15.4%).

“This was a record year for Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, to which all business units and regions contributed,” says Dr. Ludwin Monz, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG.

The Ophthalmic Devices strategic business unit (SBU) increased its revenue by 14.5 percent in the fiscal year 2018/19 (adjusted for currency effects: +12.4 percent), to €1,068.6m, compared with €933.2m in the same period of the prior year. Significant drivers of this revenue growth were once again laser systems for vision correction as well as devices and consumables for cataract surgery.

Revenue in the Microsurgery SBU grew by 12.4 percent (adjusted for currency effects: +9.7 percent), to €390.7m, compared with €347.6m in the same period of the prior year. Sales of visualization systems for neurosurgeons, for the treatment of tumors and vascular diseases, continued to develop well.

Revenue in the EMEA region increased by 10.3 percent in fiscal year 2018/19 (adjusted for currency effects: +10.7 percent), to €417.1m (prior year: €378.1m). The core markets Germany, France and the UK achieved good revenue growth.

Revenue in the Americas region also increased, reaching a new all-time high of €442.5m (prior year: €406.5m). This growth amounted to +8.9 percent (adjusted for currency effects: +3.9 percent).

The APAC region recorded revenue growth of 20.8 percent (adjusted for currency effects: +19.0 percent), to €599.7m (prior year: €496.3m). Once again, the largest contributions to growth came from China and South Korea. Japan also performed well.

The operating result (EBIT) increased to €264.7m in fiscal year 2018/19 (prior year: €197.1m). This significant increase is primarily due to a positive development of the product mix, accompanied by a slight decline in operating cost ratios. The EBIT margin increased from 15.4 percent to 18.1 percent. Adjusted for special effects, the increase amounted to 18.5 percent (prior year: 15.7 percent). Earnings per share increased to € 1.79 from €1.41 in the prior year.

Carl Zeiss Meditec expects to be able to grow faster than the underlying markets again in fiscal year 2019/20. The EBIT margin is expected to be in a range from 17 to 19 percent. Significant additional investments in research and development and in sales and marketing are already factored into this outlook.

Dr. Ludwin Monz continued: “Our markets are attractive and offer significant opportunities for growth. We want to seize these opportunities and create further value in the long term. This will require substantial investments in certain areas, particularly in development and sales presence, which we already started in fiscal year 2018/19. In the medium term, we want to secure the level of earnings we have already achieved and generate an EBIT margin that is sustainably above 18%.”