Key financials

FY2023 (31 December 2023), if not indicated otherwise.

For detailed information, 
download the annual reports in our download center.

Financial Guidance

The figures of the guidance 2024 and 2025 as mentioned below were calculated on the same basis as the actual figures for 2023.

2024 Revenue

€ 5.5 - 5.7 billion

Taking into account the launches and the continued solid contributions from the existing product portfolio.

2024 adj. EBITDA 

23.0% - 24.5%

reflecting investments in launches around the globe to offer potential new solutions for people living with severe diseases and the commitment to invest into research and development to advance the late-stage and early development pipeline.

2024 Core EPS

€ 3.70 - 4.40

based on an average of 190 million shares outstanding

2025 Revenue

at least € 6 billion

2025 adj. EBITDA

Low- to mid-thirties

(at the lower end of the range)

2025 Improved ESG

rating performance

Product sales

Strong underlying net sales growth thanks to a resilient product portfolio & new launches.

NAYZILAM® only available in the U.S., EVENITY® sales outside of Europe reported by Amgen and Astellas

CIMZIA®

peak sales guidance

≥ € 2 billion by 2024t

achieved in 2022

BRIVIACT®

peak sales guidance

≥ € 600 million by 2026

FINTEPLA®

peak sales guidance

≥ € 800 million by 2027

BIMZELX®

peak sales guidancet

> € 4 billion

Cash Flows

In 2023, the evolution of cash flow generated by bio-pharmaceutical activities was affected by the following:
 

  • Cash flow from operating activities amounted to € 761 million compared to € 1 119 million in 2022. The cash inflow stems from underlying net profitability, offset with higher working capital mainly due to an increase in inventories and outstanding receivables.
  • Cash flow from investing activities showed an outflow of € 440 million, compared to an outflow of € 1 580 million in 2022. The 2023 investing activities include mainly € 316 million capital expenditures, as well as € 113 million Contingent Value Rights to the former shareholders of Zogenix, Inc.
  • Cash flow from financing activities had an outflow of € 308 million, which includes mainly the proceeds of the € 300 million retail bond offset by the reimbursement of the retail bond maturing in October 2023 (€ -176 million), the dividend paid to UCB shareholders (€ -252 million) and interests paid (€ -144 million).

Debt financing

Net financial debt as per end June 2024 was € 2 614 million, an increase of € 437 million compared to € 2 177 million as of end December 2023. The increase is due to a lower cash level as consequence of the 2023 dividend and shares buy-back program. The net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio for June 2024 is 2.2.

UCB has established a Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Program for its long-term funding needs which enables UCB to issue unsecured bonds with a tenor of minimum 1 year within a € 5 billion program.

UCB has established a Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Program for its long-term funding needs which enables UCB to issue unsecured bonds with a tenor of minimum 1 year within a € 5 billion program.

Debt financing

UCB has access to diversified funding sources. Per 30 June 2024, outstanding bonds included:

In addition to these bonds, UCB entered into various loan agreements, including a bullet floating rate syndicated term loan maturing in 2027 in connection with the acquisition of Zogenix, Inc as well as various other bilateral loan agreements (including with the European Investment Bank, drawn in September 2023, and Schuldscheindarlehen transactions entered into in 2022 and 2023).

EMTN Prospectus Archive

ESG Ratings

We choose to actively collaborate with ranking and rating organizations that: 

  • include in their evaluation our priority areas for societal impact or focus on one of them; 
  • produce ranking or rating reports that are important and relevant to our different stakeholders.

UCB is on a continuous journey to improve its sustainability reporting practices and keeps up to date with the different trends in this field. We are currently reporting against the Global Reporting initiative (GRI), the Sustainable Development Goals’ frameworks and the  Sustainability Accounting Standard Board (SASB) reporting Standards to ensure we report on the ESG issues most relevant to our industry.

Instead of individually providing specific points of data and information to the different ESG ranking and rating providers, we are working on making relevant, accurate and reliable data publicly available.

  • SUSTAINALYTICS - UCB rating: 13.7

    The rating scale is made up of 5 risk levels ranging from severe risk (>40) to negligible risk (<10).

    The scoring methodology is based on the assessment of 20 key ESG topics.

    For more info about Sustainalytics, refer to Sustainalytics website. 

  • MSCI - UCB rating: AA

    The rating scale is made up of 7 levels ranging from CCC (poor performance) to AAA (excellent performance).

    The scoring methodology is based on the assessment of 37 key ESG topics.

    Based on the latest update (June 2022), the UCB rating is AA.

     

     

    For more info about MSCI, refer to MSCI website.

    The use by UCB of any MSCI ESG Research LLC or its affiliates (“MSCI”) data, and the use of MSCI logos, trademarks, service marks or index names herein, do not constitute a sponsorship, endorsement, recommendation, or promotion of UCB by MSCI. MSCI services and data are the property of MSCI or its information providers, and are provided ‘as-is’ and without warranty. MSCI names and logos are trademarks or service marks of MSCI.

  • ISS ESG - UCB rating: B-

    The rating scale is made up of 12 levels ranging from D- (poor performance) to A+ (excellent performance). 

    The scoring methodology is based on the assessment of up to 100 sector specific criterias.

     

     

    For more info about ISS ESG, refer to ISS website.

  • CDP - UCB ratings: A- for climate change, B for water security

     

    The rating scale is made up of 9 levels ranging from F (no information available) to A (excellent performance).

    The scoring methodology is based on the assessment of 12 topics related to environment impact.

    Based on the latest update (2022), UCB ratings are:

    • A- for climate change
    • B for water security

    For more info about CDP, refer to CDP website.

  • WDI - UCB disclosure score is only available to WDI signatory investors.

    The Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) aims to improve corporate transparency and accountability on workforce issues, provide companies and investors with comprehensive and comparable data and help increase the provision of good jobs worldwide.

    For the first time in 2020, UCB was one of 141 companies which took part in the WDI survey and had a level of disclosure higher than average for first time responders.

    For more info about WDI, refer to WDI website

  • FTSE4Good Index & BEL® ESG Index

    The FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to identify companies that demonstrate strong environmental, social and governance practices measured against globally recognised standards.

    The BEL® ESG Index is designed to facilitate the adoption of mainstream sustainable investment solutions by investors, identifying and tracking the companies within the BEL® 20 and the BEL® Mid indices that have demonstrated the best ESG practices.

Extra-financial reports

Our Purpose Is to Create Value for Patients Now and Into the Future. We focus on improving health in society and driving business growth by embedding sustainability into our business approach

As sustainability becomes more important to both companies and investors and terms such as “responsible investing” or “sustainable investing” are gathering traction in the corporate and investment sectors, there is a need for accurate and reliable information regarding companies’ performance in such topics. All types of companies are being evaluated and rated on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance by several third-party providers of reports and ratings. 

These ranking and ratings are valuable for stakeholders searching for information on UCB’s sustainability practices and for UCB itself. These evaluations, when transparent about their source of data and methodology, can be helpful in identifying gaps and allow us to improve our business practices.

Nov 2023

Environment: Our 2030 Targets

Human health and the health of our planet are deeply intertwined. We are reducing our environmental footprint across our business activities and operations, keeping in mind both current and future generations

Our targets are set in absolute numbers - independent of our business growth - benchmarked against 2015.

UCB is committed to aligning with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), an initiative created by the Financial Stability Board. Please find our disclosures as of December 31st, 2022 here.

Become carbon neutral              

 

  • reducing the emissions by 35% 
  • compensating those we cannot reduce
     

UCB has committed to science-based targets since 2019. To reduce our carbon footprint, we have committed to reducing absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions under our control by 38% by 2030, compared to 2015. We also committed to ensuring that 60% of emissions created by our suppliers will be covered by Science Based Target Initiative-like targets by 2025.

To accelerate, and for areas where we cannot reduce our emissions in the short term, we will continue to compensate to reach our goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

Reduce water consumption by 20%


We continue our path to reduce water usage by 20% by 2030, in absolute terms versus the 2015 baseline, aware that this is an ambitious target given the water intensive products being launched or part of our pipeline.

By optimizing water sampling and automating fans we have already seen a considerable saving in water. This effort is combined with green building certifications and our green-by-design approach to decouple our growth from our environmental footprint.

Reduce waste generation by 25%


We have set out to reduce absolute waste generation by 25% by 2030, compared with our 2015 base year. We are currently able to recover 70% of our waste globally, mainly through solvent recovery and regeneration.

UCB’s waste mapping reinforces the need to focus on reducing the amount of fresh raw materials used in chemical production. To enhance our efforts, UCB adopted the Process Mass Intensity (PMI) metric developed by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute (GCI). For every new pharma molecule developed at UCB, we set a PMI target to monitor and materialize our green-by-design approach. For every new molecule produced, we follow three best practices – reduce, reuse and recycle – to minimize waste generation.

Social

As of 31 December 2023

Creating the culture for UCB colleagues to thrive, and caring for each other, is essential for delivering on our patient value ambition and for generating wider societal value.

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is foundational to our sustainability approach. This means inspiring a culture of inclusion by providing equitable opportunities to all employees, embracing diverse talents and leveraging diversity of thought and experience to create value for patients, now and into the future.

At UCB, we have always defined diversity as the accumulated richness of people’s unique backgrounds, lives, cultural experiences, and the diversity of thought that this brings to our work.

Equity means ensuring all employees are offered fair opportunities for development, advancement, compensa-tion and reward as per their aspirations. 
Last but by no means least, inclusion means respecting individual differences and cap-turing the advantages that this provides to drive greater impact and value in our work.

Strong presence around the globe

1 209 new colleagues joined us

815 colleagues left us

resulting in a 8.3% employee turnover

51 / 49 gender split                     

Governance

Conducting business in a responsible way that drives ethical behavior is fundamental to our continued success and to delivering on commitments to our stakeholders.

Conducting business in a responsible way is fundamental to UCB’s core values and ethical business practices are foundational to our sustainability approach. We have a strong culture of integrity, with policies and procedures in place to ensure the highest ethical standards are applied throughout the company’s value chain, including the core principles governing how the organization operates, how decisions are made and how risks are mitigated.

Code of conduct

The UCB Code of Conduct is our governing policy that reflects UCB’s core company values, including accountability and integrity. The Code outlines the general principles of business conduct that are expected from UCB colleagues and partners throughout the world. 

Employees and contractors are required to undertake mandatory training on the UCB Code of Conduct, which is incorporated into each employee/contractor’s training plan.

Tax strategy and policy form an integrated part of UCB’s ethical and sustainability practices and constitute an explicit part of UCB’s code of conduct, driving compliant and ethical behavior of UCB employees.

Risk management

Engaging with key representatives from all operational, function-al and strategic business areas, risks are identified and assessed by each business area and the respective leadership team. In addition, a “top-down/outside-in” assessment is conducted to complete a holistic risk profile.

UCB continues to demonstrate its commitment to managing uncertainty by creating accountability at the top and driving action by the business. Every top risk is owned by a member of the Executive Committee. That member is accountable for understanding the nature of the risk and enable our response to it.

Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption (ABAC)

The UCB Code of Conduct encompasses, amongst others, core principles and behaviors aiming at mitigating the risks related to bribery and corruption as well as human rights infringements. Considering the nature of our business, UCB identified our engagement of the healthcare stakeholders as the primary ABAC risk area.

 

Corporate governance

The governance of UCB is based on a “one-tier” structure. This means that the Company is administrated by a Board of Directors and run by an Executive Committee, whose respective functions and responsibilities are clearly defined in accordance with the Articles of Association of the Company and the UCB Corporate Governance Charter.

The roles and responsibilities delegated to the Executive Committee are established by the Board.

 

Contact UCB IR Team

investor-relations@ucb.com or a specific team member:

Antje Witte, Head of Investor Relations
Tel: +32 2 559 9414
E-mail: Antje.Witte@ucb.com



Sahar Yazdian, Investor Relations Lead

Tel: +32 2 559 9137
E-mail: Sahar.Yazdian@ucb.com

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