BIRKENFELD (dpa-AFX) - The diagnostics specialist Stratec is counting on an upturn in business from the second quarter onwards. The company announced in Birkenfeld on Thursday that business momentum was expected to be very subdued in the first quarter of the year. Subsequently, customers' order forecasts, for example, suggest a "strong upturn" in sales and earnings, it said. The management is hoping for at least stable business development for the year as a whole. The news was not well received on the stock market: The share was one of the biggest losers in the small-cap segment SDax with a 10 percent discount.

Stratec's turnover is expected to remain stable or increase slightly in 2024, adjusted for exchange rate effects. Of this, 10 to 12 percent should remain as operating profit before interest, taxes and adjusted for special effects (EBIT). In 2023, currency-adjusted turnover fell by 3.8% to just under EUR 262 million. The operating margin fell from 16.4% to 10.3% and was therefore at the lower end of Stratec management's expectations.

At the bottom line, profit even fell by more than half to 13.1 million euros due to higher interest rates and increased material and personnel costs. The Group had already announced a week ago that shareholders would only receive a dividend of 55 cents per share for 2023, compared to 97 cents a year earlier.

Stratec's customers are currently still able to meet the weak end customer demand for medical tests from their partially increased inventories. In addition, many new laboratories were opened during the pandemic. According to Stratec, the many lingering effects of the pandemic are continuing to cause increased volatility in customer ordering behavior. Planning for 2024 is therefore associated with greater than usual uncertainties.

However, the Management Board assumes that customer inventories will return to a normalized level by mid-2024 and that the slight increase in market demand from end customers will also be reflected in the company's own delivery volumes. Demand for immunodiagnostics, immunohaematology and haematology is also good. According to Stratec, customers have not built up any additional laboratory capacity in these areas during the pandemic.

This is only a small consolation for investors. Driven by the strong demand for Covid tests, Stratec shares had risen rapidly since spring 2020. After a weak phase in the first half of 2021, the share price rose to a record high in September of the same year. Since then, the value has quadrupled./lew/men/jha/