SYDNEY: CSL Ltd forecast no revenue growth and underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) growth of about 5% at constant currency for fiscal 2027, signalling another subdued year as Australia’s largest health-care company pushes ahead with a sweeping restructuring.
The company expects foreign exchange to reduce profit by about US$50mil if current rates hold for the rest of the financial year. It also anticipates about US$200mil of impairments in fiscal 2027.
CSL reported a net loss of US$2.58bil for fiscal 2026 yesterday.
Revenue rose 1.5% from a year earlier to US$15.80bil on a reported basis, beating the US$15.42bil analyst estimated.
The company described fiscal 2026 as a “reset year”.
The results were consistent with CSL’s May update and included US$800mil of one-time pre-tax restructuring costs and US$7.1bil of pre-tax impairments, the company said.
The overall guidance “means cost savings are doing a lot of the hard work”, Citigroup Inc analysts Laura Sutcliffe and Abhishek Jain wrote in a note.
They saw the fiscal 2027 commentary “as probably raising questions about the mid-term shape of NPAT growth and whether CSL is now permanently a mid-single-digit earnings growth business.”
CSL has been under pressure after a string of earnings misses and writedowns. Margins have weakened at its core plasma business, while its US$11.7bil acquisition of iron-therapy company Vifor has fallen short of expectations.
Its vaccine business has also struggled with a volatile market, delaying plans for a spinoff.
In May, CSL cut its full-year profit target and flagged about US$5bil of additional impairments, sending its shares down by the most on record.
Interim chief executive officer (CEO) Gordon Naylor said at the time that while growth initiatives were working, a turnaround would take longer than expected. CSL shares have fallen 22% since the start of the year.
The results come a year after CSL began a restructuring programme aimed at cutting annual costs by more than US$500mil by the end of fiscal 2028.
Years of share-price declines have wiped 10s of billions of dollars from its market value since 2022.
Naylor, a former senior executive and non-executive director, was appointed interim CEO in February following the abrupt departure of Paul McKenzie.
CSL’s Behring division is working to expand margins on plasma therapies.
In July, the company said it will start clinical trial work in mid-2027 to confirm the efficacy and safety of immunoglobulin manufactured using its yield-enhancing Horizon 2 technology.
CSL also broke ground earlier this year on the US$1.5bil expansion of a US manufacturing facility for plasma therapy. — Bloomberg
