Eurofins reiterates plans to increase share buyback
Adds share buyback in paragraph 1, CEO comment in paragraphs 3-4, 11, analyst comment in paragraph 10, shares in paragraph 5
By Chiara Holzhaeuser
July 24 (Reuters) -French laboratory testing company Eurofins Scientific EUFI.PA, whose shares fell sharply in June after a report by short seller Muddy Waters, will stick with plans to increase its ongoing share buyback programme.
Eurofins shares fell by as much as 25% on June 24 when Muddy Waters questioned Eurofins' financial statements and specific real estate transactions. Eurofins has denied the allegations.
CEO Gilles Martin said: "We already announced that we will increase our share buyback.
"Now, of course, that depends on share price evolution, all kinds of factors, but yes, we intend to do what we said we would do."
Shares in Eurofins were up 3.2% at 1432 GMT.
The company reported half-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 757 million euros ($821.72 million), up 18.3%.
The company said the profitability increase was supported by pricing, volume growth, and cost measures.
It confirmed its targets for the full-year 2024 and 2027.
Analysts questioned the significance of the unchanged full-year guidance given that Eurofins' EBITDA-margin for the first half of the year rose to 20.9%.
"Unchanged FY24 guide implies softer margins in 2H", Annelies Vermeulen, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said.
The CEO said: "By not changing our objectives, we're not saying that we would have a bad second half. We're just simply not changing our objectives."
($1 = 0.9212 euros)
Reporting by Chiara Holzhaeuser; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jane Merriman
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