Catalent can’t seem to get its financials together in a timely manner.
After delaying its earnings report for its most recent quarter last week, the company has pushed back the release a second time. Barring a third delay, Catalent says it will release its report and hold a conference call on Friday, May 19.
The earnings rundown was originally set for release on May 9. Early last week, Catalent pushed the timeline back to May 15—a deadline it’s now missed.
The move comes several weeks after Catalent said manufacturing hang-ups at three major plants—including two of the manufacturer’s biggest—would hamper third-quarter earnings and dampen its outlook for the entire fiscal year, which runs through the first half of 2023.
In a securities filing (PDF) late Friday, Catalent said it was unable to meet the May 15 deadline “without unreasonable effort or expense." That's because it “identified certain accounting adjustments related to its operations in Bloomington, Indiana," as it was finalizing the paperwork.
Back in April, Catalent said its site in Bloomington was one of three company facilities facing issues. Specifically, the company cited productivity challenges and higher-than-expected costs there.
Catalent also reported problems at its gene therapy production plant in Harmans, Maryland, plus its site in Brussels.
As for the accounting adjustments required in Indiana, Catalent said in its latest securities filing that the tweaks stem from the timing of when it should record revenues "under certain contractual arrangements."
Catalent says it’s still determining how these errors could weigh on its annual report for fiscal year 2022 as well as the fiscal quarter that ended last September.
What’s more, Catalent needs to figure out how the errors could affect its “evaluation of internal control over financial reporting and its disclosure controls and procedures.”
Meanwhile, the company is also finalizing an evaluation of a goodwill impairment related to its consumer health business.
For the past three-odd years, Catalent has been riding high on revenues from a slate of COVID-19 production contracts with the likes of Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Still, this latest quagmire appears to have dragged on the company.
Early this year, reports surfaced that life sciences conglomerate Danaher had expressed interesting in buying out Catalent at a “significant premium.”
But the CDMO’s latest cost and productivity problems seem to have killed prospects for M&A. In April, Bloomberg reported that Danaher had ditched its plan to pursue an acquisition. While it’s not immediately clear why Danaher changed its mind, the Bloomberg report came right on the heels of the company’s productivity and cost woe revelations.