DOTTIKON ES: "Placement" creates optimism!

The shares of the contract manufacturer for pharmaceutical and chemical active ingredients DOTTIKON ES are holding their own in a challenging market environment. This is actually surprising, as Markus Blocher, majority shareholder of DOTTIKON ES, placed 75,000 of his directly held registered shares with an existing, long-term company-oriented investor at a fixed price of CHF 260 per share for a total value of CHF 19.5 million. This transaction will increase the free float by a further 0.54 percentage points. These shares are held for the long term, which indicates a high price potential and an extremely positive assessment. In addition, the tradability of a share is a key investment criterion for some investors to position themselves at all. Markus Blocher now holds a total of 64.74% of DOTTIKON ES directly and indirectly via EVOLMA Holding AG. The specialized company has grown at an average annual rate of +17% over the past five years. The strong demand from the biopharmaceutical market and the momentum to reduce geopolitical risks in the supply chain have increased significantly, especially among customers in the USA. If this trend continues, DOTTIKON ES will have to decide once again to expand its production capacities. This is despite the current strong expansion of production at the Dottikon site.Against this backdrop, majority shareholder Markus Blocher has previously announced that he is prepared to increase the free float towards 30%; other corporate investors could therefore soon appear as buyers. However, Blocher does not want to go below 60% of his stake!

DOTTIKON ES is running at full capacity and is foregoing dividend payments in order to reinvest profits. The significant expansion of production should gradually come on stream from the second half of the year. The share has interesting potential and our price target of CHF 289 could therefore be significantly too low!