Auteur(s) : Besozzi Geoffrey, Grisweg Thérèse, Herrmann Lauriane, Le Sayec Yves
Directeur : Landagaray Patrice
Composante : EMS
Date de création : 30-06-2018

Description : Comptabilité, Contrôle, Finance, Being part of the most important industries in the world, the pharmaceutical industry is subject to an increasingly constraining regulation and is also facing a large set of ethical issues. Indeed, while seeking profitability, pharmaceutical companies have a moral obligation toward society to provide drugs to everyone at affordable prices, especially in emerging countries. Considering all the controversies in the last few years, pharmaceutical companies became aware of the need to be proactive in order to restore their reputation, thus they started to integrate the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their business. Neglecting the CSR arouses vehement criticism by media, NGOs or consumers. This concept takes social, environmental and economic concerns into account but also interactions with all the stakeholders on a voluntary basis. In other words, it is the companies’ contribution to the key sustainable development issues. The oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company worldwide, Merck KGaA, is constantly proving its commitment in CSR by implementing many different actions in developing countries and being more transparent with the stakeholders. The German company is specialized in 3 core businesses of which Healthcare (focused on general medicine, endocrinology and fertility) represents the major proportion of the sales. Within a strategy of dynamic growth, Merck KGaA realized in 2015 its largest acquisition with Sigma-Aldrich for 17 billion dollar. Although being well-known and offering a huge products portfolio developed by a powerful R-D, the company is evolving in a highly competitive market with a strong price pressure given that governments apply austerity measures cutting the health’s budget, thus restricting drugs’ reimbursements. Nevertheless, knowing that drug-based therapies are widely predominant and necessary to treat severe diseases, it doesn’t jeopardize the viability of the company’s activities. In fact, Merck KGaA is performing quite well in terms of financial data. Since the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition, the company benefits from synergy effects by increasing its net sales from 11 363 million € in 2013 to 15 024 million € in 2016 and also manages to cover all its costs (operating expenses, interests, taxes) which leads to create wealth over the 3 years. However, the acquisition upset the consolidated accounts and some key financial indicators. As a matter of fact, the increase of the capital employed with a stable operating profit, has a negative impact of the return on capital employed which falls from 10,75% to 5,46% in 2015. The working capital was also impacted by Sigma-Aldrich by extending the payment terms of receivables and increasing the inventory. Short-term liabilities became higher than current assets which could affect the repayment’s ability of the company. Moreover, the level of indebtedness raised from 0,04 to 0,97 which is a significant increase but still lower than 1. The net debt isn’t alarming because the management board aims to reduce it quickly in the following years. Listed on the DAX, Merck KGaA’s average share price increased from 65,92 € to 91,52 € once the process of acquisition was totally completed. Investors were uncertain and reluctant about the consequences of such an event. One specific point is that the Merck family owns 70% of the capital. The company isn’t distributing too many dividends and the strategy is to reinvest the money in further projects. However, reaching a price-to-book ratio above 1, indicates that the return on equity is higher than the profitability expected by shareholders. Investors are also willing to pay more for a Merck KGaA’s share owing to anticipations concerning earnings rises. Last but not least, it would be advisable for shareholders who seek some safety on their investment to invest in a stable business such as Merck KGaA.
Mots-clés libres : Merck, Sharp - Dohme International Thèses et écrits académiques, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, étude de cas, case study, 650
Couverture : FR