(Updated with details, analyst comments)
March 15 (Reuters) – The manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients Euroapi plunges on the stock market on Friday after announcing the suspension of its outlook for 2024 just two weeks after revealing them, due to the temporary shutdown of its Italian site in Brindisi.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, around 3:20 p.m. GMT, the stock fell 15.79% to 2.756 euros, widening its loss since the start of the year to 52%. It hit a historic low earlier in the session at 2.26 euros.
Euroapi, a former subsidiary of Sanofi listed since May 2022, said Thursday that it had suspended its annual outlook due to the temporary cessation of the production of all active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) at the Brindisi site after failures in control quality were detected.
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“Following an internal audit, quality control failures, attributable to potential failings at the local level, have been identified and are the subject of an in-depth investigation,” the group said in a press release.
Euroapi said in late February that it was considering selling the Haverhill, England, and Brindisi sites, given the company’s refocusing of its commercial strategy on value-added APIs and the significant decline in Sanofi’s volumes.
Euroapi will publish a revised outlook for 2024 in the second quarter, he said.
According to the group, sales from the Brindisi site amounted to 63 million euros in 2023, of which 43% were made with Sanofi.
In a note, JP Morgan analysts estimate that Euroapi could face a reduction of around 4% of consensus for its 2024 turnover and around 30% for its so-called “core” EBITDA, if production does not restart within the next nine months.
“Euroapi will launch external quality audits at all its other sites, but the results of these audits are not expected until the new forecasts for 2024, and the details of the strategic review will be communicated during the second quarter, which creates additional uncertainties,” note Deutsche Bank analysts.
Euroapi had already plunged on the stock market in recent weeks, most recently at the beginning of the month, after Deutsche Bank lowered its recommendation to “sell”.
At the end of February, the group was sanctioned after disappointing its profit margin and turnover forecasts for 2024.
(Written by Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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