Celltrion "Sales to Grow 30% by 2027, Shareholder Return Rate to Increase to 40%"

Value-Up Program Announced
This Year's Sales Target Set at 5 Trillion KRW

Incheon Songdo Celltrion Plant 2 Overview. / Incheon - Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

Celltrion has set a goal to achieve an average annual sales growth of over 30% and a shareholder return rate of over 40% for the next three years.

On the 18th, Celltrion stated, "We want to clearly communicate our growth targets to the market and present a strong commitment and plan for shareholder returns," announcing a value-up (corporate value enhancement) program with goals including ▲sales growth (average annual sales growth of over 30%) ▲profitability improvement (return on equity: achieving ROE of over 7%) ▲shareholder returns (achieving an average shareholder return rate of 40% over three years) by 2027.

Regarding sales, the company presented a blueprint to achieve this year's target of 5 trillion KRW and maintain an average annual growth rate of over 30% until 2027. They plan to accelerate sales growth through stable growth of existing products and rapid market penetration of new products. Last year, while existing products such as Remsima and Truxima showed stable growth, the sales proportion of new products like Remsima SC (U.S. brand name: Gymsentra) and Uplyma increased from 26.1% to 38.4%, resulting in a record consolidated sales of 3.5573 trillion KRW. The day before, Celltrion Pharm also announced that it achieved its highest-ever performance last year with annual sales of approximately 477.8 billion KRW and operating profit of about 37.2 billion KRW.

With the rapid increase in the number of approved products recently, sales growth is expected to be more distinct starting this year. The number of products has increased from the previous six to eleven with the addition of five new products, and the plan is to expand to 22 products by 2030. The global market size targeted by Celltrion products is also expected to grow from 138 trillion KRW this year to 261 trillion KRW by 2030.

Profitability improvement effects are also expected to become full-fledged starting this year. Due to ▲consumption of high-cost inventory ▲productivity improvement (Titer Improvement) ▲expansion of production at the third plant ▲completion of amortization of development costs for existing products, the cost of goods sold ratio (cost proportion relative to sales) is expected to decrease rapidly. The cost ratio, which was close to 63% just before the merger with Celltrion Healthcare at the end of 2023, dropped to around 45% within a year, and it is expected to enter the 20% range by the end of this year’s quarter. The company plans to continuously lower the cost ratio and achieve an improved cost ratio in the 20% range on average annually by 2027.

Celltrion will also significantly strengthen its shareholder return plan for mutual growth. This is to actively fulfill the promise to shareholders to "prioritize and practice enhancing shareholder value." Through dividends, share buybacks and cancellations, and additional shareholder returns such as tax-exempt dividends, the company aims to achieve an average shareholder return rate of 40% relative to consolidated net profit over three years from this year to 2027. In the mid-to-long term, the goal is to gradually increase cash dividends targeting 30% of earnings (EBITDA-CAPEX).

A Celltrion official said, "We announced the value-up project to present the company’s vision and maximize shareholder returns in a situation where last year’s record-high sales were renewed, new products successfully penetrated the market, and portfolio expansion proceeded smoothly," adding, "We will accelerate our leap to become a 'global big pharma' by building solid corporate value and implementing top-level shareholder return policies, growing together with investors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.