Q1 2026 Merck KGaA Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Merck KGaA (MKGAF) reported a solid start to 2026 with organic Group sales increasing by 2.9% and EBITDA pre rising by 5.3%.
- Life Science and Electronics sectors showed robust organic sales growth of 8% and 4% respectively, offsetting a moderate decline in Healthcare.
- Process Solutions delivered double-digit growth at 16%, marking the first time since Q1 2023 that sales exceeded EUR1 billion in a single quarter.
- The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance, reflecting stronger momentum in Life Science and resilience in Healthcare.
- Merck KGaA (MKGAF) successfully closed a supplier mislabeling dispute, resulting in an additional gain of EUR25 million in Electronics.
- Healthcare experienced an organic sales decline of 3.4%, primarily due to generic competition for Mavenclad in the US.
- Reported net sales fell by 2.8% to EUR5.134 billion, impacted by disproportionate FX headwinds from US and Asian currencies.
- EBITDA pre was down by 0.3% to EUR1.530 billion on a reported basis, despite organic growth.
- FX headwinds negatively impacted EBITDA pre by 5.7%, with a disproportionate currency headwind in Q1.
- Healthcare's EBITDA pre declined by 8% organically, with expectations of lower margins for the remainder of the year due to lower US Mavenclad sales and launch investments.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Merck investor and analyst conference call on first quarter 2026. (Operator Instructions)
I'm now handing over to Florian Schraeder, Head of Investor Relations, who will lead you through this conference. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Sarah. I highly appreciate everyone joining us for our Q1 2026 earnings call. My name is Florian Schraeder and I'm the Head of Investor Relations at Merck.
I am delighted to be joined by Kai Beckmann, our Group CEO; and Helene von Roeder, Group CFO. Kai and Helene will walk us through the key slides and financial highlights of the past quarter. And Kai will also take the opportunity to provide an update on the company's strategic direction.
For the Q&A part of the call, we will be further joined by Jean-Charles Wirth, CEO of Life Science; Danny Bar-Zohar, CEO of Healthcare; and Benjamin Hein, CEO of Electronics.
With that long intro, I will turn it over to Kai to get us started.
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