ROVI’s operating revenue rose 26% to 817.7 million euros. This increase was mainly due to the growth of the contract manufacturing business (+52%) and the progress of the specialty pharmaceutical business (+8%).

In financial terms, our EBITDA improved 37% in 2022 in comparison with the previous year, rising to 278.9 million euros. Furthermore, the net profit saw an increase of 30% in relation to the 2021 figure, rising to 199.7 million euros.

ROVI’s profits in 2022 surpassed our forecasts in a difficult economic context marked by uncertainty. As a result of the effort and investment put into the different basic pillars of our business, we achieved the greatest economic growth in:

• Sales of the heparin division (low-molecular-weight and other heparins) rose 9% to 264 million euros.
• Sales of prescription-based pharmaceuticals grew 7% to 372.6 million euros, 3 percentage points above the Spanish innovative product market.
• Sales of the contract manufacturing division rose 52% to 403.5 million euros, mainly as a result of the collaboration agreement with Moderna, allowing us to significantly increase our production capacity, which we expect to be fully operational at the end of 2024.

Additionally, we are betting on greater vertical integration in the value chain for heparins through Glicopepton, a joint venture with Càrniques Celrà, S.L. and Grupo Empresarial Costa, S.L. to create one of the first national structures for the self-supply of such an essential medicine as low-molecular-weight heparins. We expect it to come into operation in 2026.

This sound operational and financial outlook provides us with guarantees when facing the challenges of investment and growth in the pharmaceutical sector. In 2022, we invested 51.4 million euros, 77% of which related to investments in our facilities.

We have a very strong balance sheet, as may be seen from our net cash position of 53.8 million euros at 31 December, 2022. We hope the strength of our balance sheet will allow us to take advantage of other opportunities to expand our sales and make our assets profitable.

Furthermore, ROVI is going to put a motion to the General Shareholders’ Meeting for the distribution of a dividend of 1.2938 euros per share charged against the 2022 profit and retained earnings. This is a 35% increase on the dividend charged against the 2021 profit (0.9556 euros/share) and entails the distribution of a sum approximately equivalent to 35% of the 2022 consolidated net profit.

2023 has brought a new post-pandemic scenario for ROVI, in which COVID-19 will probably be a seasonal disease and the vaccine will be administered once a year, as is already the case with the flu vaccine. In this context, we forecast that the second half of the year will be stronger than the first for the contract manufacturing business.

Thus, for 2023, our guidance is that operating revenue will drop by low-teen figures versus 2022, although growth of between 5% and 10% on the 2021 figure is expected.

Our main goal is to continue growing as a company that bets on the development of I&D products and the research and development of drugs that improve patients’ lives worldwide.