(Update: Share price development, additional commentary)
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The share price trajectories of specialty packaging manufacturers Gerresheimer and Schott Pharma could hardly be more different on Wednesday. While Gerresheimer shares plunged by up to 35 percent, hitting their lowest level since summer 2009 after the company postponed its 2025 financial statement, Schott Pharma shares rebounded by nearly 13 percent at times.
Gerresheimer's path is going “from bad to worse to even worse,” wrote JPMorgan analyst David Adlington in his initial reaction. According to Barclays analyst Pallav Mittal, the new management must completely overhaul the company's long-term outlook and set only truly achievable targets in order to regain lost investor trust.
On Tuesday evening, the Düsseldorf-based company postponed the publication of its 2025 annual and consolidated financial statements, originally scheduled for February 26. According to current findings, individual employees violated internal guidelines and accounting regulations.
The resulting corrections to the consolidated financial statements mainly concern the recognition of revenue and the accounting and valuation of inventories. The group is continuing to investigate the causes and responsibilities and has already implemented initial personnel and organizational consequences. In addition, a second auditing firm has been commissioned to clarify the matter.
The company also expects non-cash impairments of between 220 and 240 million euros in 2025. The main causes are developments at Sensile Medical in Switzerland and Gerresheimer Moulded Glass Chicago in the USA. In the view of Barclays analyst Mittal, the company will fall short of market expectations in 2025. Even for 2026, the consensus is at the upper end of the guidance provided.
In February 2025, investors were still paying around 80 euros for Gerresheimer shares, partly due to takeover speculation, which quickly faded. In July, the company announced it had ended talks with financial investors about a possible takeover bid. This was compounded by sluggish business performance, forcing the company to scale back its targets.
Then, the financial regulator BaFin launched an investigation into problematic entries in the 2024 consolidated financial statements. Investors had actually hoped the issue was resolved after Gerresheimer reported a likely misbooking in the low single-digit million euro range, which is negligible compared to overall group revenue.
Meanwhile, rival Schott Pharma was praised for its surprisingly strong start to the new 2025/26 business year. Revenue and operating profit were clearly better than expected, wrote Olivier Calvet of Swiss bank UBS./ag/mis/stk
