April 21 (Reuters) – Swedish medical equipment maker Getinge reported a bigger than expected drop in first-quarter core earnings on Tuesday, citing a decline in ventilator sales and lower investments at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty.
The maker of products for surgery, intensive care and sterilisation has been grappling with higher U.S. import tariffs that squeezed margins and forced it to raise prices of its products, cut costs and adjust supply chains over the past year.
“The investment climate for pharma is impacted by the geopolitical uncertainty,” CEO Mattias Perjos said in the quarterly report.
• Lower investments are mainly reflected in the order intake for the project-based and capital-intense washers, isolators, and sterilizers category, Perjos said
• Quarterly orders rose 3.9% organically, marking a ninth straight quarter of growth
• Adjusted EBITA fell 18% to 824 million Swedish crowns ($90 million) in Q1, versus analysts’ consensus of 829 million crowns
• The core profit took a hit of 122 million crowns from currency exchange rates; tariff costs had an impact of 104 million crowns
• Getinge makes more than a third of its sales in the U.S.
• It has shifted higher raw material and tariff costs to customers through price hikes, though their delayed effects forced it to absorb significant costs in the short term
• Getinge confirmed 2026 forecast for organic sales growth of 3% to 5%
($1 = 9.1556 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Marta Frackowiak in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
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