Expected to Surpass 1 Trillion Won in Sales This Year... Operating Profit Also Expected to Reach 220 Billion Won
Quantum Leap with 4th Factory Expansion... "Will Firmly Secure World No. 1 Position"
Samsung Biologics held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Plant 4, the world's largest single factory, on the 18th at its Global Campus in Songdo, Incheon. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Samsung Biologics' sales are expected to surpass 1 trillion won this year. It is analyzed that with the completion of the new factory expansion in 2022, it will be able to firmly secure the world's number one position.
On the 29th, Cape Investment & Securities gave a 'buy' investment opinion and a target price of 960,000 won for Samsung Biologics based on this background. The closing price on the previous trading day was 799,000 won.
Established in April 2011, Samsung Biologics specializes in contract manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals (CMO), process development (CDO), and contract research (CRO) businesses. Its biopharmaceutical production capacity is 364,000 liters, accounting for 28% of the global CMO companies' total production capacity of 1.31 million liters, ranking first in the world.
Based on this, starting with one approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015, it has secured 156 approvals from regulatory agencies worldwide, including 38 from the FDA, 41 from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and 77 from others as of last August, thereby securing quality competitiveness. Since 2016, disclosures of orders received through the electronic disclosure system have secured $2.73 billion. Including undisclosed orders, the total orders amount to $3.97 billion, with about $1.42 billion delivered. This means it holds an order backlog of $2.55 billion, which is 64.2% of the total order amount.
Based on this background, Cape Investment & Securities expects Samsung Biologics to achieve sales of 1.044 trillion won and operating profit of 221.5 billion won this year, representing increases of 48.8% and 141.4% respectively compared to the same period last year.
It is expected to solidify its number one position globally through the 256,000-liter scale 4th plant, whose groundbreaking ceremony was held on the 18th. The 4th plant, targeted for partial production in 2022 and full operation in 2023, surpasses the 3rd plant (180,000 liters), currently the world's largest single-plant production facility. The total floor area is approximately 238,000 square meters (㎡), comparable to the combined floor area of 240,000 ㎡ of the 1st to 3rd plants.
In particular, the 4th plant is designed as a 'super plant' capable of handling everything from cell line development to finished product manufacturing within a single facility. This is expected to dramatically increase the speed of global biopharmaceutical supply and enhance competitiveness.
Researcher Hyungsoo Kim of Cape Investment & Securities explained, "We have already signed biopharmaceutical production contracts with large multinational pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as various biotechnology companies. Since the rapidly growing biopharmaceutical market has formed an industrial structure where biotechnology companies without production facilities outsource manufacturing to specialized CMO companies to focus on research and development (R&D) and marketing, the expansion of the 4th plant will firmly establish the world's number one position."
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