Swiss skin care firm Galderma flags prospects, but shares slip

ZURICH (Reuters) -Switzerland's Galderma signalled sales growth would be at the upper end of its target range in 2024 after publishing half-year results, but its shares fell in a choppy market amid higher expectations in some quarters for the skin care company.

Galderma posted net sales in the January-June period of $2.2 billion, up 10.8% on a constant currency basis, as Core EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) reached $514 million.

Galderma updated its 2024 net sales guidance towards the upper end of its 7-10% growth range in constant currency terms, and CEO Flemming Ornskov told Reuters: "The outlook is great."

However, Galderma's shares reversed an early 1% rise to fall by over 4% amid broader weakness in the market.

Julius Baer analyst Fabian Wenner said the shares had likely suffered because the market had expected a bigger guidance raise, stronger profit and more progress on deleveraging debt - as well as because of more general sectoral headwinds.

Carved out of Nestle in 2019 and bought by a consortium led by Swedish private equity firm EQT, Galderma began trading its shares in March with an initial tranche of the company's stock.

Ornskov declined to be drawn on when more Galderma shares could be up for grabs, but noted a six-month lock-up period for the main shareholders would end this quarter.

"As of September, they are free to sell shares," he said, expressing confidence that when the time came, it would be carried out in an orderly manner.

He saw plenty of upside in the Asia-Pacific region, noting that sales in China, where the firm is still relatively small, yielded growth "significantly above" the overall result.

"I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to grow in China," Ornskov said, also pointing to the Middle East as an area rich in potential growth.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Andrey SychevEditing by Miranda Murray, Kirsten Donovan and David Evans)