Bachem Trims Full-Year Growth Guidance to 35-40% as Sisslerfeld Mega-Contract Finally Signed, EBITDA Margin Target Held
Half Year 2026 Results Call, July 30, 2026
Bachem Holding disclosed on its half-year 2026 earnings call that full-year sales growth guidance has been narrowed to 35% to 40% in local currency, down from the previously communicated 35% to 45% range. Management was careful to frame this as a visibility adjustment rather than a demand problem. CEO Anne-Kathrin Stoller explained that the company now has granular insight into which products, manufacturing lines, and changeover schedules will actually translate into shipped and invoiced revenue this year versus early 2027. "It's really no material change. It's just a much better visibility on our detailed production schedule," she told analysts. Importantly, the EBITDA margin guidance was left unchanged at low-30s in local currency, and CFO Alain Schaffter reiterated confidence in reaching that range given the roughly 60% top-line growth expected in the second half.
Sisslerfeld Finally Gets an Anchor Customer
The most significant new disclosure was confirmation that Bachem has signed a strategic collaboration agreement to supply large volumes of peptides from its long-delayed Sisslerfeld site, committing more than CHF 500 million of investment with commercial production targeted for 2030. Management would not name the partner, the product, or contract terms, citing confidentiality, but was explicit that this is a first step rather than the ceiling. "We are very happy with this very first step that we do in Sisslerfeld," Stoller said, adding that the company remains in discussions with other potential partners and that the site's land bank can support "a lot more buildings." Schaffter confirmed the CHF 500 million figure was the plan as of earlier this year and that the reduction in 2026 CapEx guidance to CHF 350 million-CHF 400 million (from a higher prior expectation) reflects the later-than-hoped signing timeline plus unused contingency on other projects, not a change in project scope. On phasing, in-house engineering hours tied to Sisslerfeld are now being capitalized, with CapEx expected to distribute roughly evenly across 2027-2030. Analysts pressed on whether the original CHF 800 million-1 billion medium-term Sisslerfeld capital plan still holds; Schaffter deferred any update to the Capital Markets Day on November 26, declining to revise prior guidance in the interim.
Building K Ramp-Up on Track, but No Double-Counting for Investors
Bachem confirmed first commercial GMP material was produced out of Building K's first phase during the first half, though zero sales were booked from it in H1 — all contribution is expected in H2, consistent with prior guidance. Management pushed back firmly on analyst attempts to annualize the implied H2 contribution from Building K and its associated large customer, warning against assuming the same split repeats next year. "You cannot make the assumption that next year, it will just be double that," Stoller said, noting production started ramping in H1 even though it didn't hit the top line. She also declined to confirm a specific utilization ramp curve, noting an ideal plant targets around 85% utilization rather than 100%, and that ramp trajectories are customer- and process-specific. Construction of Building K's second phase is set to complete this year, with ramp-up beginning in 2027 and full utilization expected to take two to three additional years.
Segment Mix: Commercial API Weakness Was Scripted, Not a Miss
Commercial API sales fell nearly 20% year-on-year in H1, a figure that surprised some analysts, including Vontobel's Daniel Jelovcan, who called it "quite below" expectations. Management attributed this entirely to timing, noting that Building K volumes — booked under Commercial API — are weighted to the second half, while CMC Development delivered outsized H1 strength (more than half of total H1 sales) on a strong pipeline. Stoller indicated the full-year split between the two segments should look broadly similar to 2025 once the year normalizes.
Margin Dilution and Currency Drag
EBITDA margin came in at 25.4% reported, a 370 basis point dilution versus a strong prior-year comparison base, with 25.9% in local currency. The bulk of the dilution, 2.1 percentage points, came from COGS as Bachem added headcount and maintenance capacity ahead of future growth, with smaller drags from G&A (0.6 points) and R&D (0.5 points), the latter still within the company's targeted 1.5-2% of sales reinvestment range. Currency alone cost 0.6 points. Looking ahead, Bachem flagged a full-year currency headwind of approximately CHF 20 million on revenue, with two-thirds of that flowing through to EBITDA, as the US dollar and euro strengthen against the Swiss franc.
Cash Flow, Balance Sheet and Financing Runway
Operating cash flow reached CHF 104.7 million, with inventory building by CHF 80.9 million — one-third in raw materials to support Building K's ramp, two-thirds in work-in-progress and finished goods tied to near-term customer deliveries. Customer prepayments rose by CHF 86.2 million to a CHF 455 million balance, of which CHF 142 million is classified current. Net debt stood at CHF 157 million, a 0.8x leverage ratio, following CHF 150.7 million in bank loan drawdowns and a CHF 67.5 million dividend payout. Schaffter reiterated that Bachem expects to turn free-cash-flow positive in 2029 and explicitly ruled out equity-linked financing for now, pointing to the CHF 500 million credit facility signed in April as sufficient runway. He declined to disclose what portion of CapEx is prepayment-financed industry-wide estimates of 25-30% were neither confirmed nor denied, with Schaffter saying only that "the numbers you have from others are not totally wrong as a median number."
Competitive Landscape Shifting, Bachem Declines to Engage Directly
Asked directly about Samsung Biologics' entry into synthetic peptides and Novo Holdings-backed consolidation around PolyPeptide, Stoller declined to comment on named competitors but acknowledged structural change. "We see the competitor landscape in our business changing. We have consolidation happening. We have new entries entering the peptide market, which is not very surprising. It keeps us on our toes," she said, framing Bachem's response as continued investment in R&D, process innovation, and manufacturing technology rather than pricing defense.
Market Backdrop: Metabolic Disease Still Dominant, Oligonucleotides Emerging
Bachem reiterated that obesity and type 2 diabetes remain the primary demand driver, with metabolic disease now representing 37% of the late-stage peptide pipeline, surpassing oncology historically the largest category. Management noted peptide adoption is broadening well beyond metabolic indications. The oligonucleotide pipeline remains earlier-stage but is showing strong Phase I/II growth, with metabolic and cardiovascular indications gaining share; Bachem said oligonucleotide sales and profitability are progressing well, with full-year orders already secured, though contribution is similarly weighted to the second half — a dynamic management stressed is unrelated to Building K and purely a function of customer order phasing. On oral GLP-1 exposure, Stoller clarified there is no such thing as a distinct "oral peptide" from Bachem's perspective: the company manufactures the peptide itself, and customers subsequently determine injectable versus oral formulation, meaning Bachem's economics are agnostic to that downstream decision.