PolyPeptide Delivers Blowout Earnings in What May Be Its Final Call as a Public Company Before Samsung Biologics Takeover
Half-year 2026 results and business update call, August 13, 2026
PolyPeptide Group used what could be its last earnings call as a listed company to report a dramatic profitability inflection, raise full-year guidance, and reaffirm the terms of its pending acquisition by Samsung Biologics. CEO Juan Jose Gonzalez closed the call with an unusually candid acknowledgment: "This might be our last earnings call." The Zurich-listed peptide CDMO's results validate both the strategic logic behind Samsung's CHF 44.31-per-share offer and the underlying strength of the GLP-1-driven manufacturing boom that has reshaped its business over the past three years.
Margins Inflect Sharply as Metabolic Scale Kicks In
The headline number was margin expansion. EBITDA margin jumped from 2.7% in the first half of 2025 to 20.7% in the first half of 2026, with EBITDA rising from EUR 4.4 million to EUR 49.1 million on revenue of EUR 236.6 million, up 41.6% year-over-year (43.7% at constant currency). Interim CFO Tim Brandl was explicit that this is not a one-off: "The key message here is that the step-up is structural, driven by high utilization of our large-scale SPPS asset in Braine and strong operational execution across the network." Even stripping out a EUR 9.2 million one-time gain from an intangible asset sale against EUR 4.8 million of continued ERP investment, underlying EBITDA margin still came in at 18.9%, roughly seven times the prior-year level.
Metabolic therapeutics remains the singular growth engine, up 73% year-over-year and now representing 68% of total revenue, compared with 25% when the company went public in 2021. Commercial revenue grew 35.8% on the back of the newly ramped Braine facility, while development revenue, a leading indicator of future commercial volume, grew even faster at 52.3%.
Guidance Raised, Pipeline Now Represents Half of Global Phase III Peptide Activity
On the strength of the first half, management raised 2026 revenue growth guidance to 25% to 30% from 20% to 25%, and lifted EBITDA margin guidance to the high teens from mid-to-high teens, while holding capital expenditure guidance at 15% to 20% of revenue. The midterm target was reconfirmed unchanged: doubling 2023 revenue by 2028 with EBITDA margin approaching 25%.
The most striking pipeline data point was the growth in late-stage programs. Phase III projects increased from 30 at the end of 2025 to 37 at mid-2026. Gonzalez put this in context against the total addressable pipeline: "Globally, the number of synthetic peptide drugs in development in Phase III is about 70. That basically means that about half of all Phase III development activity is going through PolyPeptide." Management also disclosed that some of this Phase III growth is coming not from PolyPeptide's own Phase II programs graduating, but from projects switching away from competitors mid-development, attributed to rising molecular complexity that rival CDMOs are struggling to handle.
Samsung Deal Terms Reaffirmed, Anchor Shareholder Locked In
Management used the call to restate the mechanics of the pending transaction first announced on July 20. Samsung Biologics has agreed to acquire all publicly held PolyPeptide shares for CHF 44.31 per share in cash, a 40% premium to the undisturbed price and a 60% premium to the 60-day volume-weighted average price prior to deal rumors surfacing. Anchor shareholder Frederik Paulsen, holding 55.65% of shares outstanding, has already agreed to tender, and the board's independent, non-conflicted members unanimously recommended acceptance, backed by a fairness opinion. Management declined to comment on how other shareholders are likely to respond, with Brandl noting only that "the prospectus has not been published, and the acceptance period has not started."
On customer reaction, Gonzalez was more forthcoming, framing the deal as a capability upgrade rather than a disruption: "Customers see this as an opportunity for PolyPeptide to access resources and capabilities to scale up in a way that before was going to be very difficult." He also indicated that whatever the outcome of investor negotiations, the company is already evaluating options to rapidly add brownfield capacity in Belgium, Torrance, and Ambernath, using the same modular construction approach validated at Malmo, which Gonzalez said can take a large-scale expansion from construction start to completion in roughly 2.5 years, with subsequent modules moving faster still.
Competitive Landscape: China Still Locked Out of Western Contracts
Asked directly about WuXi AppTec's fast-growing peptide numbers, Gonzalez pushed back on the comparability of the data, noting that WuXi's reported figures blend tetramer raw material, fragment production, full peptide synthesis, and oligonucleotides, making true peptide-specific growth difficult to isolate. More importantly, he asserted that biosecurity concerns keep Chinese CDMOs out of Western commercial negotiations entirely: "When we look at Western customers, in most of the commercial negotiations that we discussed, we are only competing against other Western players. We do not compete against Chinese players." PolyPeptide, in turn, does not compete for Chinese tenders. On generic semaglutide, Gonzalez said the company has no intention of entering that segment, viewing it as the domain of Chinese and Indian manufacturers, and instead is doubling down on differentiated, branded next-generation metabolic drugs, including monthly dosing formats, oral delivery, and improved efficacy and side-effect profiles that are expanding indications into MASH, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis.
On consumer peptides, an emerging U.S. category outside traditional pharma channels, Gonzalez said the company is watching with interest but has no near-term plans to enter, given that demand from branded pharma and biotech customers already exceeds what PolyPeptide can currently supply.
Capacity Buildout De-Risked Into 2028
Braine is now operating at target capacity with yield improvements beyond plan. Strasbourg begins ramp-up in the second half of 2026, though management cautioned the revenue contribution this year will be minor, with the bulk of benefit arriving in 2027. Malmo, the company's first fully modular expansion and its largest single project at roughly EUR 100 million, largely funded by a major metabolic pharma partner, remains on track for 2027 ramp-up and is expected to exit that year at target utilization. Net cash flow from investing activities was EUR 45.8 million in the half, mostly tied to finishing Strasbourg and Malmo. The company had drawn EUR 100 million of its EUR 200 million revolving credit facility as of June, with EUR 59 million of cash on hand, giving it, in management's words, the flexibility to keep funding expansion while the Samsung process runs its course.