Eckert & Ziegler reported H1 results: adj. EBIT grew 10% yoy ex license, with the margin up 1.2pp to 22.3%, while reported adj. EBIT fell 6% yoy to € 33.3m against a base carrying € 5m of license income at close to full margin. Sales rose 4% yoy ex license to € 149.3m. Quarterly figures are less comparable, as Q2 25 absorbed most generator shipments displaced by the February 2025 cyberattack.
Medical grew ex license adj. EBIT by 35% yoy to € 24.9m in H1, on ex license sales up 7% yoy to € 80.9m. The ex license margin of 30.8% expanded by 6.4pp yoy, against a prior-year half in which high-margin generator shipments were suspended for a part of Q1. Lu-177 sales more than tripled yoy, CDMO revenue nearly doubled yoy and the generator business kept growing, absorbing a weaker development in plant engineering.
H1 Isotope Products sales came in flat yoy at € 68.5m while adj. EBIT fell 24% yoy to € 9.4m, at a margin of 13.7% (-4.3pp yoy). Volume recovered within H1, from -7% yoy in Q1 to +7% yoy in Q2 on medical radiation sources and project business, without the mix following: demand stayed skewed toward lower-margin products.
FY26 guidance of c. € 320m sales and c. € 80m adj. EBIT confirmed, implying H2 sales growth of 5% yoy and adj. EBIT growth of 10% yoy. Adjusted for license income the underlying implied outlook is +7% on sales and +25% on adj. EBIT. With the mix set to recover in the IP segment this looks feasible, in our view.
Meanwhile, the stock trades at less than 10x EV/adj. EBIT 2026e (eNuW) and at an adj. FCFY of c. 7.5%, hence basically priced without growth despite a solid position in radiopharma, one of the fastest growing verticals in healthcare.
Supportive cross-read on valuation: US-based BWXT has agreed to sell a majority of its Medical radioisotope business to the PE Nordic Capital. Similar to Eckert & Ziegler, this segment is a picks and shovels provider to the drug innovators and big pharma, being active in isotope production, precursor supply and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing. The transaction is valuing the business at roughly 5-8x EV/Sales in 2026 (eNuW), reflecting a significant premium over Eckert & Ziegler's c. 2.4x. Applying even the low end of that range to Eckert & Ziegler's Medical segment alone (€ 168m sales 2026e, eNuW) implies € >0.8bn, i.e. more than the group's entire current enterprise value and essentially leaving Isotope Products unvalued.
BUY, PT € 21.50, based on DCF.
ISIN: DE0005659700
