Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics is the most valuable enterprise in the Baltics: the manufacturer of products to fight COVID-19 has increased its value by €1.7 billion
Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, the Lithuanian company that produces the components for COVID-19 vaccines, has climbed into first place in the latest Baltic 30 Most Valuable Enterprises list, moving down the last year's leader Vilniaus prekyba, which is in second place in this year's survey.
The list of the 30 most valuable companies in the Baltics was compiled for the second year in a row by experts from Confidentus, Prudentia and Nasdaq's offices in Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, who carried out a major financial analysis of the companies, as well as an assessment of the public disclosure of information on corporate governance, which includes the information disclosed in the companies' websites and annual reports about shareholders, the composition of the boards of directors, equal opportunities, social and environmental responsibility and more.
The top 30 most valuable enterprises in the Baltics range in value from €604 million to over €6 billion, including eight companies headquartered in Lithuania.
“Over the year, the number of companies headquartered in Lithuania on the list of the most valuable enterprises in the Baltics has decreased from ten to eight, with more Estonian companies, but Lithuanian companies continue to lead the list. In addition, Lithuanian companies have the highest value of EUR 18.7 billion this year, compared to EUR 17 billion a year ago,” says Kristupas Kukarskas, an investment banking expert and partner at Confidentus, who has analysed the value of Lithuanian companies.
"The Baltic Top 30 Most Valuable Enterprises revealed the strong performance of manufacturing companies, especially those operating globally. For example, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, a listed subsidiary of a large US pharmaceutical group, and Kronospan Group, a newcomer to the list, both reached new heights last year," notes Kārlis Krastiņš, Managing Partner of Prudentia. According to him, the Baltic Top 30 Most Valuable Companies is a unique analytical tool that gives the public a deeper insight into the financial performance of companies and promotes the global competitiveness of Baltic companies.
Impressive growth driven by strong demand for pandemic-fighting products
The top three most valuable companies in the Baltics this year are Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, Vilniaus prekyba and Swedbank Baltics, with the same companies in 1st and 2nd place swapping places.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, which was second last year, has moved up to the first place in the list of the most valuable enterprises this year. Expert analysis showed that the company's value increased by €1.7 billion over the year, from €4.4 billion to more than €6 billion, an increase of 39%.
"Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics has seen impressive growth on many indicators over the years, with sales revenue rising from €1.2 billion in 2020 to almost €2 billion in 2021 and EBITDA reaching €735 million last year. As the Vilnius-based company produces components for PCR tests and reagents for mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, the company's impressive growth has been driven in particular by the production of products related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge demand for them.
While sales of other products not directly related to the pandemic also grew, it will be interesting to see how Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics gets on in 2022 as the COVID-19 threat rapidly diminishes," K. Kukarskas, partner at Confidentus, summarises the study.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics itself has indicated in its 2021 financial report that it predicts that the volume of testing for COVID-19 virus, and therefore the demand for the company's products in this market, may indeed change in 2022 as the pandemic situation is managed. The company also indicated in its annual report that its sales revenues in 2022 will be affected by global geopolitical and macroeconomic trends: as a result of Russia's war against Ukraine, countries may adjust their budgets and instead of the planned investment in stimulating the economy, they may shift more resources towards strengthening the defence sector. This would also mean less funding for the science sector and less focus on technological innovation.
Meanwhile, Vilniaus prekyba, the leader of last year's list of the 30 most valuable enterprises in the Baltics, has dropped from first place to second place this year. According to experts, unlike Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, the value of Vilniaus prekyba has remained almost unchanged over the year, rising from EUR 4.7 billion last year to almost EUR 4.8 billion this year, or around 1%.
"Vilniaus prekyba's sales revenues increased from EUR 5.3 billion to around EUR 5.6 billion and the company's EBITDA reached EUR 489 million last year, so last year was a good year for Vilniaus prekyba, but not as successful as Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, which had a very big spurt," summarised investment banking expert K. Kukarskas.
Most Valuable: almost all banks decline in value, specialised portal manager makes to the list
Swedbank Baltics, in third place on the list, saw its value fall from EUR 3.9 billion to almost EUR 3.2 billion, as it did last year, while other banks - SEB Bank Group (6th place) and Luminor Bank (12th place) - also saw their values fall last year, while the Estonian-listed LHV Group, the only one of the banks on the top 30 list, was the only one that saw its value rise the most among the companies on the list - by 66%, or from EUR 707 million to almost EUR 1.2 billion, rising to 15th place.
As Kukarskas notes, this year's top 30 list of the most valuable companies in the Baltics was not lacking in other developments - for example, Latvia's most valuable company, Latvenergo, increased its value from EUR 2.1 billion to EUR 2.5 billion (19%), rising from 7th place to 4th place. "Latvenergo also managed to overtake Lithuania's Ignitis Group, which remained in the same 5th place, keeping its value almost identical (€2.2 billion).
This year's list of the most valuable companies also includes newcomers, such as the Kronospan Group, a wood panel producer worth €851 million in 22nd place. Kronospan Trading, a subsidiary of UAB Kronospan in Lithuania, had a turnover of €35.2 million last year.
Somewhat lower on the list, in 24th place, are the other newcomers - the London Stock Exchange-listed Baltic Classifieds Group (EUR 819 million), which operates a dozen or so specialised portals, including the well-known in Lithuania Skelbiu.lt, Aruodas.lt, Autoplius.lt and others.
Meanwhile, VG Holding, the manager of the Vičiūnai Group, which was 26th last year, as well as Teva Baltics and the Circle K Group dropped out of the top 30 most valuable companies in the Baltics.
"Although some companies have achieved excellent financial results in recent years, the turmoil in the markets due to the Russian war against Ukraine has led to a drop in the comparable multiples of many companies, resulting in a decline in the value of many companies in the first half of this year," said K. Kukarskas, a partner of Confidentus, one of the compilers of the survey.
"We congratulate the listed companies that have made it to the top 30 most valuable enterprises in the Baltics and we are pleased to see as many as eight companies listed on Nasdaq's Baltic Market, including three from Lithuania, in this ranking," said Saulius Malinauskas, President of Nasdaq Vilnius Stock Exchange.
"The ranking of the most valuable companies in the Baltics shows that Latvian state-owned energy company Latvenergo and Lithuanian energy company Ignitis Grupė are the best performers of all the companies listed on the Baltic exchanges this year. It is also encouraging to see Estonian energy company Enefit Green and Nasdaq Baltic Market members Swedbank Baltics, SEB Bank Group, Luminor Bank, AS and LHV Group in the ranking," notes S. Malinauskas, President of Nasdaq Vilnius Stock Exchange. - We hope that the examples of listed companies' transparency, good corporate governance and investor relations will encourage more companies to strive for higher standards and that the number of listed companies in the Baltic market will increase in the future."
The Baltic Enterprise Value Analysis looked at data from around a thousand companies in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enterprise value (equity value in the case of financial services companies) was determined by applying the comparable multipliers method and by assessing the good governance of companies based on publicly disclosed information. Listed companies' values were calculated on the basis of the stock exchange price.
The study only considered publicly available data for companies registered in the Baltic States, and therefore excluded some technology start-ups and unicorns that do not consolidate financial results in the Baltic States. If a company has operations in several Baltic countries, their value was assessed on a consolidated basis.
