Avantor, Inc. (AVTR) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2022

July 29, 2022 8:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Irene and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Avantor's Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Results Conference Call.

I will now turn the call over to Christina Jones, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mrs. Jones, you may begin the conference.

Christina Jones

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Our speakers today are Michael Stubblefield, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tom Szlosek, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The press release and a presentation accompanying this call are available on our Investor Relations website at ir.avantorsciences.com. A replay of this webcast will also be made available on our website after the call. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions.

During this call, we will be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filings. Actual results might differ materially from any forward-looking statements that we make today. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made. We do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or other developments. This call will include a discussion of non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures can be found in the appendix to the presentation.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Michael.

Michael Stubblefield

Thanks, CJ and good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining us today. I'm starting on Slide 3. As we announced in our press release, we delivered another outstanding quarter, with strong results across all key financial metrics, including core revenue growth, margin expansion, earnings growth and free cash flow generation. Our results cap a strong first half of the year and highlight our exposure to attractive end markets, our differentiated product and service offerings, the resiliency of our business model in a dynamic macro environment and our continued track record of execution.

Continuing our momentum from the first quarter, we achieved 6.4% core organic revenue growth on an 18.4% comparable from a year ago, driven by continued strength in biopharma and advanced technologies and applied materials. Once again, our core bioproduction business grew over 20% in the quarter. And we are set up for continued growth with a robust order book, reflecting the ongoing strength of the biologics pipeline and our broad exposure to all modalities. We expanded EBITDA margins by over 140 basis points, including strong expansion in our core business and benefits from our 2021 acquisitions. Through the first six months of the year, our core organic revenue growth and margin expansion are tracking our 2022 guidance and above our long-term targets.