Schott Pharma celebrated a successful debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The pharmaceutical packaging company also benefits from the growing business with injectable medications such as the weight loss syringe Wegovy.
The pharmaceutical division of the Mainz-based specialty glass manufacturer Schott has arrived on the stock exchange. Schott Pharma shares were traded for the first time on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the so-called Prime Standard. The debut is considered a success, as the share is clearly above the issue price on its first day of trading.
The Schott glass company earns almost a billion euros
The first price for the shares was given at 9:17 a.m. in Frankfurt as 30.00 euros. Until lunchtime, a peak price of 30.42 euros is paid for one Schott Pharma share. The previous daily low of 29.40 euros was also significantly higher than the issue price of 27 euros. At the issue price, the company is valued at 4.06 billion euros. The parent company, the Mainz glass group Schott, will earn 935 million euros from the sale of 23 percent of the shares in its subsidiary.
“It is the right time for us, the market is stable and we have received very positive feedback from investors,” said Schott Pharma CFO Almuth Steinkuehler to the dpa news agency. Going public brings “greater entrepreneurial flexibility and visibility – in the market, but also among employees. And it gives us access to the capital market. With such a price increase, it’s a great start for us.”
Growing syringe business
Company boss Andreas Reisse spoke of a new capital in the history of Schott Pharma. The Schott division, which was spun off in 2022, produces, among other things, syringes made of glass and special glass plastic, ampoules and vials for the medical sector and benefits from the rapidly growing business with injectable drugs.
The company expects a growth spurt from high demand for its syringes for mRNA therapies and medications for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, such as the weight loss syringe Wegovy from the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which is currently experiencing real hype.
In the last financial year, Schott Pharma generated sales of 821 million euros and an operating result (EBITDA) of 219 million euros. The proceeds from the IPO go entirely to the parent company – Schott Pharma says it does not need any money.
Stock exchange listing in Frankfurt – different from BioNTech
Analyst Heiko Leopold from Deutsche Bank saw “extremely high interest” from institutional and private investors in the largest German IPO so far this year. He also referred to numerous investments by German funds. Investors are particularly convinced by the focus on products and solutions for injectable drugs. Their growth prospects are higher than for the pharmaceutical market as a whole.
Schott Pharma had announced its IPO some time ago, but postponed it to 2022 due to the war in Ukraine, inflation and key interest rate increases. The company consciously decided to go public in Frankfurt – unlike the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech, which is also based in Mainz and is listed in the USA. The sandal manufacturer Birkenstock, which comes from Linz am Rhein in Rhineland-Palatinate, will also go public on the other side of the Atlantic in October.