Fresenius Meets 2020 Guidance; Expects 2021 Earnings Hit From Pandemic
February 02 2021 - 1:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Cecilia Butini
Fresenius SE & Co. said late Monday that it has achieved its
sales and net income guidance for 2020 and expects this year's
earnings to be meaningfully affected by the effects of the
coronavirus pandemic.
The German health-care company said that, according to
preliminary results, it achieved its sales and net income guidance
including the effects of Covid-19. It had previously guided for
sales growth of 3% to 6% and for a net income development at the
lower end of a range between minus 4% and 1%, in constant
currency.
Group net income for 2020 was hurt by impairments at Fresenius
Medical Care in Latin America for a total of about 195 million
euros ($235.2 million), the company said.
Earnings for 2021 are expected to be very meaningfully affected
by the effects of Covid-19, particularly due to the significant
acceleration of mortality among dialysis patients at Fresenius
Medical Care, the company said. It said it expects the effects of
the pandemic to only begin to recede in the second half of the
year, allowing for stable net income year-over-year on healthy
sales growth in 2021.
Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co., the company's dialysis
division, said the severity of illness in Covid-19 patients with
kidney disease resulted in an increased mortality for those
patients throughout 2020. This is expected to carry over into 2021,
the company said.
Despite the negative impact of the pandemic, Fresenius Medical
Care said it has achieved its revenue target and has slightly
exceeded its net income target for 2020, based on preliminary
results.
For 2021, Fresenius Medical Care expects revenue growth of up to
mid-single digits and assumes net income before potential
restructuring measures and including anticipated Covid-19 effects
to decline by up to 25%.
Medium targets at Fresenius Medical Care and at Fresenius
weren't revised, though Fresenius said it will give an update on
its medium-term expectations when it publishes 2020 results on Feb
23.
Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2021 02:15 ET (07:15 GMT)
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