GENEART Publishes Financial Results for First Half 2009

REGENSBURG, GERMANY--(Marketwire - August 13, 2009) -

-- Net sales increased by 3.4% to EUR 8.1M with a slightly positive result -- New business unit Protein Services implemented to round off the product line for the development of biopharmaceuticals -- Prognosis for 2009 unchanged and reconfirmed

GENEART AG, global leader in Gene Synthesis and specialist in the field of Synthetic Biology, showed stable business development correlating with current expectations in the Interim Consolidated Financial Statements for the second quarter and first half of 2009. Net sales increased moderately by 3.4 % to EUR 8.1M during the first half of 2009 compared to the prior year (first half 2008: EUR 7.9M). Second quarter 2009 net sales increased by 2.9 % to EUR 4.1M compared to the prior year's reference quarter (second quarter 2008: EUR 4,0M). Thus, despite a difficult market environment, GENEART managed to compensate for the expiring major contract by the NIH (U.S. American National Institutes of Health) in the third quarter 2008 by an increasing number of medium-sized and small orders. With new customers in the medium and small segments, the customer structure continued to broaden significantly, and the market share of GENEART in Gene Synthesis could be extended again.

Considering the difficult market environment and the currently cautious behaviour of customers of the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industries when placing major orders, GENEART was able to generate a satisfying EBITDA of EUR 0.8M for the first half of 2009. During the prior year's reference period EUR 1.4M were recorded. The Group's EBIT totaled EUR 26 thousand for the first half of the year. After adding the financial result of EUR 39 thousand the EBT reached EUR 66 thousand (first half 2008: EUR 1.1M).

While first quarter 2009 results had still been severely affected by a price increase for the chemical acetonitrile, the switch to an alternative substance could already be noticed in a decreasing material cost ratio during the second quarter. Starting in the second half of the year GENEART expects to see the material cost ratio to reach normal levels again.

The investment program implemented in 2008 resulted in an increase of the cost structure and affected the 2009 results. With these investments GENEART created a highly automated and scalable technology platform, which allows to significantly boost production capacities even on short notice and with only a moderate cost increase. This is a prerequisite for GENEART to profit superproportionally from increasing demand through economies of scale and to actively support market consolidation in the field of Gene Synthesis providers.

In addition to its cost leadership GENEART proved its technology leadership once again during the second quarter 2009 when producing genes for a vaccine against the so-called swine flu (H1N1). GENEART succeeded in producing the required genes for the vaccine in record time -- among others for the Robert Koch Institute (RKI -- the Federal Government's central institution responsible for disease control and prevention) and for one of the Top 10 pharmaceutical companies.

A key strategic focus at GENEART is the expansion of its product portfolio in order to offer system solutions to customers. Since the launch of the business unit Protein Services for the generation of cell lines and the production of proteins in mammalian cells in May 2009, GENEART can offer the entire value chain from the gene to the protein, and thus, a comprehensive range of products for the development of biopharmaceuticals. This enables GENEART to develop additional sales and profit potentials apart from Gene Synthesis in the future.

Based on the current economic situation and its current order status, the company still expects net sales of EUR 16M for 2009 to be at least at prior year's levels. Assuming a recovery of the economic environment, net sales between EUR 17M and EUR 18M can be expected with a balanced EBIT for the entire year, as it had already been achieved in the first half of the year.

For further inquiries, please contact: Dr. Karoline Stürmer GENEART AG Josef-Engert-Str. 11 93053 Regensburg Germany Phone: +49-(0)941-942 76-417 Fax: +49-(0)941-942 76-711 ir@geneart.com www.geneart.com Frank Ostermair Better Orange IR & HV AG Haidelweg 48 81241 Munich Germany Phone: +49-(0)89-8896906-10 Fax: +49-(0)89-8896906-66 info@better-orange.de www.better-orange.de

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This document may contain estimates, prognoses and opinions about company plans and objectives, products or services, future results, opinions about these results or opinions leading up to these results. All these projections into the future are subject to risk, uncertainty and unforeseeable change outside the control of the GENEART Group. Many factors may lead to actual results, which considerably deviate from the given projections for these results.

About GENEART AG:

In 2000, GENEART entered the Gene Synthesis market and has since become the global market leader. Today, the company is one of the leading specialists in the Synthetic Biology field. Experts at GENEART provide key technologies for the development and production of new therapeutics and vaccines. Customers also take advantage of GENEART services to customize enzyme attributes, such as the attributes of enzymes used as detergent additives, and to construct bacteria, which produce complex biopolymers or break down polymers, such as synthetics, petroleum components, etc. GENEART's service portfolio ranges from the optimization and production of synthetic genes according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000, to the generation of gene variants or complex gene libraries and the production of cell lines, to the development and production of DNA and protein based drug candidates. GENEART AG in Regensburg and its subsidiaries GENEART Inc. in Toronto (Canada) and GENEART Inc. in San Francisco (USA) employ about 190 people. The company is listed on the German Stock Exchange since May 2006.

PDF -- GENEART Publishes Financial Results for First Half 2009: http://hugin.info/136633/R/1334348/316687.pdf

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