Earnings Call
Azenta, Inc. (AZTA)
Earnings Call Transcript - AZTA Q3 2022
Operator, Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Azenta Q3 2022 Financial Results. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Tuesday, August 09, 2022. I will now turn the conference over to Sara Silverman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Sara Silverman, Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, operator, and good afternoon to everyone on the line today. We would like to welcome you to our earnings conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022. Our third quarter earnings press release was issued after the close of the market today and is available on our Investor Relations website located at investors.azenta.com in addition to the supplementary PowerPoint slides that will be used during the prepared remarks today. I would like to remind everyone that during the course of the call, we will be making a number of forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Securities Act of 1995. There are many factors that may cause actual financial results or other events to differ from those identified in such forward-looking statements. I would refer you to the section of our earnings release titled Safe Harbor Statement, the Safe Harbor slide on the aforementioned PowerPoint presentation on our website and our various filings with the SEC, including our annual reports on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We make no obligation to update these statements should future financial data or events occur that differ from the forward-looking statements presented today. We may refer to a number of non-GAAP financial measures, which are used in addition to, and in conjunction, with results presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe the non-GAAP measures provide an additional way of viewing aspects of our operations and performance, but when considered with GAAP financial results and the reconciliation of GAAP measures, they provide an even more complete understanding of the Azenta business. Non-GAAP measures should not be relied upon to the exclusion of the GAAP measures themselves. In addition, we may refer to certain estimates of COVID-based impacts. These figures are estimated based on our insights to customer applications and/or product types indicating such demand or constraints on regional demand or ability to deliver. On the call with me today is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Schwartz; our Chief Operating Officer, Matt McManus; and our Chief Financial Officer, Lindon Robertson. Yesterday, after the market closed, we issued a separate press release, announcing the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire B Medical Systems. Following the review of the third quarter results, we'll provide highlights of the agreement and the B Medical business. We will then take your questions at the end of the prepared remarks. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Steve Schwartz.
Steve Schwartz, CEO
Thank you, Sara. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'd like to reiterate that this call will be longer than our usual quarterly call, as we dedicate the first half to a detailed review of third-quarter results and the second portion will focus on the pending acquisition of B Medical Systems. Our third-quarter results reflected continued execution and what was for us a more challenging environment. While Q3 results came in a bit softer than expected, we believe this is a short-term perturbation, and we remain extremely positive about our solid position in robust markets, which will allow us to return to the strong growth profile we've been delivering for many years. Despite the near-term headwinds we experienced, we still delivered solid organic growth of 6% year-over-year, driven by continued momentum in our storage services and cold storage systems. We continue to see customers turn to us to build out their lasting infrastructure and why we will provide more details later in our remarks suffice it to say the team is fully engaged and ready to tackle the needs of our customer base. As you will note from our press release yesterday, we've been busy on the M&A front when we announce the acquisition of B Medical Systems, a global leader in innovative vaccine cold chain and temperature control transport solutions. This business, along with the addition of Barkey, which we closed on July 01, are meaningful additions to our portfolio of capabilities in the high-value, highly critical cold chain. Both businesses advance our mission to accelerate discovery and development, and both provide critical capabilities at the point of delivery of life-saving therapies to people across the globe. I want to welcome the Barkey team to Azenta and I look forward to the B Medical team joining us when we close the acquisition, which is expected in October 2022. Even after these transactions, we will still have roughly $2 billion in cash available to deploy for strategic investment. We're actively pursuing several meaningful organic expansion initiatives, and we continue to work a robust pipeline of additional M&A opportunities to enhance our portfolio. I will now turn to our results for Q3. Revenue for the quarter was $133 million, up 3% year-over-year. At a headline level, this growth rate is lower than we've delivered in many years, but in terms of our ongoing business, we were up 14% when normalized for the estimated COVID-19 impact in both periods. That said in the quarter, we experienced a complex operating environment that contained COVID-related headwinds, as well as some changes in customer behavior that impacted our results. Regarding the operating environment, similar to past quarters, we continued to manage through logistics and supply chain issues for certain business lines, as well as continued labor inflation. We've begun to implement pricing increases to offset these headwinds that provided a modest benefit in Q3, but the majority of the benefit will be seen in Q4 onward. With respect to COVID, I'll comment on our operations, as well as on what we're seeing with demand. On our last earnings call, we shared that in late April, we experienced a two-week shutdown of our facility in Suzhou, China. We estimate that this negatively impacted revenue in our genomics business by roughly $1.5 million in the quarter. Since then, we have not experienced any additional facility shutdowns and all of our global operations are functioning normally. That said, on the demand side, the COVID situation in China continued to cause headwinds from our Chinese genomics customers, particularly the academic institutions, which were closed for an extended period. We expect to see some continued demand volatility in China so long as COVID remains present. In addition, although we had anticipated in forecasted a meaningful decrease in our consumables and instruments revenue for Q3, we were taken by surprise at the magnitude of the sequential drop, which turned out to be approximately $3 million more than the original $6 million decrease we had contemplated in our guidance and although we believe the genomics performance is recovering in Q4, based on the order patterns to date at present, we forecast yet another drop in consumables and instruments in the fourth quarter. Matt and Lindon will give some additional color in their remarks. We've also received the question from investors on our customer mix, as well as exposure to small and early stage biotech. Overall, we estimate the total anti-exposure is roughly two-thirds pharma biotech, one-quarter academic, and the remainder being hospitals, distributors, diagnostics companies, government, and others. The trends we saw with our customers in Q3 were fairly broad and have not been limited to small early-stage customers. Overall, we acknowledge a more difficult environment, but we remain keenly focused on performance and encouraged by the progress we're making operationally as well as with our customers. We're confident in the market-leading capability we've built that squarely addresses the needs of a growing market, and we anticipate strong growth to be the norm again in the near future. Today, I'm pleased to have our Chief Operating Officer, Matt McManus, with us on the call. Matt joined us earlier in the year and has been a great addition to the team. Matt will cover more detail on the quarter and then turn it over to Lindon to cover the financials.
Matt McManus, COO
Thank you, Steve. It's good to be on the call with you all today. Since I joined Azenta in January, I've been continuously impressed by the team and our portfolio of capabilities. I've traveled to many of our sites and I'm proud of the work we are doing to enable and accelerate our customer's scientific breakthroughs to market. I will now provide more detail around the results from the quarter, starting with our product segment. The Products business delivered revenue of $47 million for the quarter. That's a 3% decline year-over-year. Excluding estimated COVID impacts, this business grew 16%. The growth ex-COVID was driven by double-digit growth in our large stores, cryogenic stores, and products-related services. Our large automated stores business had a record bookings quarter and while it's difficult to identify a trend, this gives us increased confidence in our outlook for the next few quarters as these orders typically take six to nine months to fully convert into revenue. In terms of the types of customers, we are selling more into GXP environments with large pharma customers, as well as into clinical and repository applications. Our cryo business also remains strong, growing mid-teens year-over-year. In the quarter, we placed our largest ever order in Europe at a new cell therapy production facility. This customer has also leveraged multiple aspects of the Azenta ecosystem, including our cryo pods, filling stations, and qualification services. Separately, we completed the installation of a cryo exchange, a multi-unit system controlled by a central cryogenic picking chamber at one of the country's leading research hospitals. We also saw record shipments of cryo pods and LN2 filling stations, which are great entry points for Azenta with the customer. Our Product Services business, which provides post-warranty services, spare parts, and other product maintenance had a record quarter. This is an important part of our business, which ensures continued maintenance of our equipment and more importantly, continuity with our customers. The consumables and instruments business declined 18% year-over-year. As we have discussed previously, the C&I business has experienced the largest benefit from COVID-related demand and in the quarter, this benefit fell to $3 million, primarily from China customers. In addition, we saw some softness from the Americas and AMEA regions, which we believe is due to several factors, including one; customers stocking positions, as we're hearing from customers that they took on larger supply positions of consumables that are taking longer to work down as well as two, a slower approval process for investment in laboratory instrumentation. Our services business reported revenue of $85 million, up 6% year-over-year, driven by growth in sample repository services and more muted growth in genomics. Genomics revenue grew low single digits. A portion of our customers reduced scope of work or delayed projects, some citing the current market uncertainty as a factor for the more cautious spending. Next generation sequencing grew 5% year-over-year, while the deceleration reflected softer ordering levels. We are seeing terrific traction with our new proteomics offerings and recent European launch of our Amplicon-EZ offering, an efficient sequencing chemistry, which has been great for bringing in new customers. The Synthesis business was the most impacted by our China facility lockdown in April, as well as by the continued COVID situation in China. The latter impacted both our customer's demand as well as added complexities to our logistics globally during the quarter. We have a small, but growing gene synthesis production capability in the US, which we believe will be a significant asset for us in the future. In addition, we continue to launch new service offerings to expand our customer touchpoints. This quarter, we expanded our viral packaging services to baculovirus generation, an important tool for protein expression with pharma and biotech cores. We saw strength in pre-clinical and clinical services driven primarily by continued momentum in our high throughput genomics portfolio, supporting clinical trials. Sanger revenue declined 1% year-over-year, primarily due to the COVID situation in China, where many of our customers, especially academics were not placing orders. Assuming the COVID situation in China improves, we expect to see this customer demand return in Q4. The sample and repository solutions business grew 19% year-over-year, driven by a continued increase in core storage revenue and the number of samples stored. We continue to work on securing additional large deals in the pipeline and I can say with confidence that our customers are genuinely impressed with what they see when they visit our Indianapolis facility, which now boasts a newly installed automated store. The buildout of our Indianapolis facility dedicated to manufactured product is going well and will provide additional storage capacity as we expand this offering. Cell and gene therapy research continues to be a growth engine for our business, representing approximately 10% of revenue in the quarter. Genomics, SRS, and products, cell and gene therapy revenue all grew double digits year-over-year. The team continues to add services targeted to our cell and gene therapy customers. Most recently, we added a GLP AAV-ITR service in our preclinical and clinical business, which enables us to extend our relationship beyond the initial research and discovery stage. The last point I'll make about our cell and gene therapy business is that the addition of Barkey provides an important new platform for growth. Barkey is a leader in controlled rate cell thawing with end-to-end applications from R&D all the way to the patient. They serve over 100 cell and gene therapy customers and their key product, the Plasma-Therm, is used for controlled rate thawing of cryopreserved raw materials and patient therapies. Finally, I'm also pleased to report that in July, we completed our laboratory moves in China to our new state-of-the-art facility in Suzhou, as well as our move to a larger laboratory in the Boston area in June. Both milestones are significant for our customers, our business, and our employees. These strategic investments significantly expand our capacity and provide room for future additional growth. As we look ahead to the fourth quarter and beyond, we acknowledge that challenges may continue over the near term, but the immense potential of our portfolio and critical market applications is clear. As a standalone life sciences company, we will continue to deliver the value of Azenta to our customers and what we view as the very early days of this unique opportunity. I will now turn the call over to Lindon.
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Thank you, Matt. I now refer you back to the slide deck available on our website, turning to slide three, to review some points from the quarter. Third-quarter revenue grew 3% year over year, that is 6% organically, which adjusts for the headwinds from currency. Q3 was unquestionably a challenging quarter as we faced a combination of external and internal headwinds. External factors of currency and COVID have affected us in the past, but this quarter, they each provided for particularly severe comparison to a year earlier. And internally, we experienced a site shutdown due to COVID in the April month at our Suzhou, China site. In total, the growth was impacted negatively from foreign exchange by three points that get you to the organic growth rate of 6%, and we estimate another 11 points from the change in COVID demands when comparing to the prior year. We will provide additional color on these impacts as we step through the detailed results of the segments. But for now, I will simply highlight that the services segment grew 6% year over year as reported and 8% organically. And the Product segment reported a decline of 3% year over year, and was actually up 2% on an organic basis. The larger five-point impact in products is due to its higher content of European-based revenue. Non-GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.12 flat sequentially and up $1 year over year. We ended the quarter with over $2.5 billion in cash on the balance sheet. The acquisition of Barkey and the announced agreement to acquire B Medical Systems will be funded from this cash on hand. Moving on to Slide 4, on the left side of the page, the GAAP P&L carries the traditional differences in SG&A such as amortization and M&A related expenses. More significant this quarter is the difference in the tax line. On a GAAP basis, we had accrued to the expected full-year tax rate in the first half. When you do this on a negative pre-tax income early in the year with expectations for positive bottom line in the second half, quarterly tax accrual is always highly sensitive to an adjustment to the full-year projection. As our projected full year is brought down with the current quarter, top line results, and expected M&A cost, you see this sensitivity in the quarter. Now let's look into the non-GAAP P&L on the right side of the page for additional color on the performance. Total revenue for the third quarter was $133 million, up 3% year-over-year. As mentioned, the organic growth in the quarter was approximately 6%, which excludes the three-point headwind from foreign exchange. The currency headwind on revenue was roughly two points more than anticipated in our initial third-quarter guidance. We estimate we had $1 million of net positive revenue in Q3 from COVID effects compared to $10 million in Q2 and $13 million in Q3 2021. The third quarter's COVID impact positive and negative is comprised of delivering a total of $4 million of COVID revenue in the quarter; $3 million of this COVID demand was in the consumables and instruments business, and approximately $1 million of services in our Sample Repository Solutions business for managing vaccines. But we also saw an estimated $4 million of headwind in the genomic services business, which is a lack of revenue we believe was driven by the COVID environment. We had described approximately $3 million in our expectations, which included impacts from our operational lockdown in early April and some customer demand. The extra $1 million impact in our results was driven by the extended China lockdowns on this customer demand situation. Overall, our estimated Q3 COVID-related revenue was approximately $4 million less than we expected in our prior guidance. Gross margin was 46.3%, reflecting margin pressure in each of the segments. Operating expense declined $5.5 million quarter-to-quarter, primarily reflecting lowering accruals for performance-based compensation. These accruals included a year-to-date adjustment and are expected to come back up approximately $2.5 million in this fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter was 10.4%, down 290 basis points quarter-over-quarter, reflecting the reduced operating leverage from the lower revenue base, as well as the impact from the lower gross margin. This leverage works both ways. It accelerates the margin expansion as we grow, but in these periods, when we run lower, it takes our margin down substantially. I would emphasize that we are indeed a growth business in a strong industry, and we are confident the headwinds are temporary, and that with the leverage in our model, margin expansion will return with our future growth. Turning to Slide 5 for a review of our Life Sciences product segment results. The Product business delivered $47 million of revenue, down 3% year-over-year. If I can refer you to the graphic in Slide 5, I will describe the bridge. Excluding the $2 million impacts from currency, the Product segment grew 2% year-over-year. Within C&I, we saw a $4 million decline at a constant currency or a drop of 14% year-over-year. We have estimated an approximate $6 million decline from COVID demands on tubes within the C&I line. The non-COVID demand has seen an increase of approximately $2 million or mid-single-digit growth. Not to dismiss the surprises, but I do want to highlight, we continue to have strong performance in systems and services. We had 27% growth at constant currency in systems and 25% in related services. As Matt highlighted, we saw significant bookings in the quarter, which continue to feed the backlog for revenue into 2023. So there are two key messages as we look forward. In the highly differentiated value in the systems and services businesses, which includes the automated cryo storage for cell and gene therapy, we see high demand and expected continued growth. The consumables and instruments business will continue to see softness and we saw $3 million of COVID demand in Q3, but we see minimal amounts of this quarter, perhaps supporting only $1 million. The life sciences products, Q3 gross margin was 44.9%, significantly lower than our peak in Q2 and 260 basis points lower year-over-year. The trend reflects the leverage hit as C&I dropped and less favorable mix as C&I does provide a higher than average margin. The trend in gross margin leads us to the lower Q3 operating margin of 4.7% and EBITDA margin of 9.3%. For the fourth quarter, we expect to see $47 million to $51 million of revenue. That would be a reported decline of 4% to 12% year-over-year. We anticipate we will only carry about $1 million of COVID demand in our C&I business compared to $11 million a year ago, bringing C&I to an approximate 30% drop year-over-year. However, we continue to see momentum in automation systems or related services, where we expect to see a positive 30% growth with approximately half of this from our organic growth and half from the addition of the Barkey automated controlled rate thawing offerings. Our total projected growth of products carries an approximate 4.5 point drag from currency year-over-year. Next, please turn to Page 6 for a review of our Life Sciences services segment results, the services business delivered revenue of $85 million, up 6% year-over-year. Excluding $2 million in foreign exchange headwinds, services were up 8% year-over-year. The estimated impact of COVID was a negative $2 million in this quarter, compared to a positive $3 million in the third quarter of 2021 or a headwind of $5 million. The negative $2 million in this quarter included a $3.6 million headwind in China genomics, partially mitigated by the continued vaccine management and sample repository solutions. Genomic services generated revenue of $59 million, up $2 million or approximately 4% year-over-year at constant currency rates. We did not add a graphic on the page for sequential explanation, but I would be remiss if I did not add color to the decline evident in the top line numbers on the chart. $6 million of the $7 million drop was in genomics. More than $1 million of the $6 million was from currency. After that, the largest contributor was next-generation sequencing, which declined approximately $3 million, most all of it in Asia where the COVID lockdowns impacted us. The remaining $1.5 million decline is within the synthesis and other lab services revenue stream. Sample repository solutions delivered revenue of $26 million reporting strong growth of 19% year over year driven by our core storage services. As you can see in the graphic on Slide 6, this business contributed $5 million of top line growth year-over-year at constant currency, significantly driven by the global enterprise partnerships we have in the biological sample storage space. Services segment gross margin was 47%, down 260 basis points from the second quarter, down 450 basis points year-over-year. Gross margin decline was significantly driven by the leverage head and genomics with growth in labor costs, but on lower growth of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the Service segment was 10.3%. As we look into the fourth quarter, we do see improved demand upon the genomics business and sequential expansion of the Sample Repository Solutions business. All in, we estimate revenue to be $84 million to $90 million, providing approximately flat to 8% year-over-year growth and is inclusive of a three-point headwind from foreign exchange. Let's turn to Slide 7 to review the summary of cash flows. At the free cash flow line, you can see that we had a use in excess of $400 million in cash, primarily driven by the taxes paid on the gain on the sale of the semiconductor automation business. Capital expenditures in the quarter totaled $15 million. We completed construction on the first phase of our new China headquarters in Suzhou, and are now operating from that space. Final capital expenditures on this project are expected to be made in the fourth quarter. Let's turn to Slide 8 to review the balance sheet. As of June 30, we had $2.5 billion of cash, restricted cash, and marketable securities with no debt outstanding. As you move down the balance sheet, you'll see an increase in other current assets, which is primarily due to the currency translation adjustment for our net investment hedge. The decrease in other current liabilities reflects the tax payments that I had mentioned for the sale of the semi-business. Turning to Slide 9 for our guidance on the fourth fiscal quarter of 2022. Revenue for continuing operations is expected to be in the range of $131 million to $141 million with a midpoint supporting a decline of approximately 1% year-over-year. We expect products revenue to be in the range of $47 million to $51 million, supporting a decline of approximately 8% at the midpoint and services being in the range of $84 million to $90 million, supporting a growth rate of approximately 4% at the midpoint. Foreign exchange is expected to be a headwind of approximately four percentage points and the acquisition of Barkey is expected to contribute approximately three points to year-over-year growth. Overall, we are projecting approximately $2 million of COVID-based revenue in the fourth quarter compared to $12 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. The $2 million this quarter reflects the lower level of COVID-based revenue, continued vaccine management, and sample repository solutions and some relief in the China headwinds in genomics. I also want to highlight that we will be making certain investments in operating expenses for strategic initiatives in light of having a significant expansion of global reach with our portfolio of cold chain capabilities. You should expect, we will spend another $3 million to $4 million in operating expenses this coming quarter to accelerate these initiatives. When combined with a change in variable compensation, accruals, and the addition of the Barkey structure, we expect operating expenses to be approximately $7 million higher in the fourth quarter compared to this prior quarter. With this in consideration, adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be $8 million to $14 million. Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be $0.04 to $0.12 per share. I will be back with you in a few minutes to address the implications of our investments and our new acquisitions, but for now, I'll turn the call back over to Steve to talk about the acquisition of B Medical Systems.
Steve Schwartz, CEO
Thank you, Lindon. Everyone, please turn to Slide 11 of the presentation. I'm very pleased to discuss with you the acquisition of B Medical Systems, a global leader in some of the most critical links in the vaccine, cold chain, and temperature control transport solutions. Across every part of B Medical Systems they've been lives as the purpose, which drives all that they do, and they've embraced this mission for more than 40 years. As we've discussed in past quarters, we've been actively evaluating multiple M&A opportunities and in B Medical Systems, we believe we have found a unique asset that fits perfectly into our goals at Azenta to help our customers accelerate discovery, development, and delivery of life-saving therapeutics. In addition, B Medical capabilities add multiple dimensions to Azenta and provide capability that will further extend our global cold chain solutions. As you'll hear in my remarks, their business is mission-critical in enabling the delivery of treatments to people across the globe. As part of Azenta, we see incredible opportunity for additional investments that will grow and expand this business even further. Like Azenta, B Medical is a company that prides itself on innovation and has a track record of challenging what's possible. The company has focused its R&D investment to meet the demanding needs of customers to reliably deliver vaccines in some of the most challenging climates and remote regions. Scientific discovery in innovation is happening faster and faster, but that's only part of the story. You still need a way to effectively deliver these treatments and that last mile to the patient is what B Medical makes possible. Reliable and traceable cold chain solutions are a necessity in markets that they serve and B Medical is the market leader in its core vaccine cold chain business, enabling the delivery of life-saving therapies anywhere, anytime to anyone. When I say anywhere, I mean to some of the most remote and rugged areas of the globe with limited infrastructure, such as electricity, cell phone service, and paved roads, as well as in areas where temperatures routinely exceed 40 degrees Celsius or into the hundreds on the Fahrenheit scale. When I say any time, I'm referring to situations where electricity may be temporarily unavailable, and there's a need for continuity of cold chain, such as in a natural disaster. And rather than say to anyone, I should have said to everyone, as the medical supports a global mission to make sure children receive vaccines to prevent life-threatening diseases for which there are known cures and they might not otherwise have access. To accomplish this, they forged enduring relationships with aid groups, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi, and others, and establish themselves as preeminent suppliers of cold chain solutions that ensure life-saving treatments will be delivered dependably. The backing of these prestigious organizations is a testament to the superior capabilities of B Medical Systems to be entrusted with the last mile solutions to the critical health missions of these institutions in 150 countries worldwide. In addition, we've been thoroughly impressed with the support that B Medical receives because it's headquartered in Luxembourg. We see this as a very favorable business environment and one in which we'll continue to invest for growth. The grand duchy of Luxembourg offers significant benefits, including a very strong innovation ecosystem, access to a highly talented workforce, and significant government support to promote B Medical's mission of saving lives globally. This includes support from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Development and Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs. Turning to Slide 12, let me provide a bit more detail on B Medical and its business lines. B Medical brings to us into more than 350 employees. They have a rich 40-year history of leadership in the vaccine cold chain market, including an installed base of more than 500,000 units across all business lines. The business today is divided into three sub-segments: vaccine cold chain, which represents about 80% of their revenue, medical refrigeration, which is around 13% of revenue, and blood management systems, which account for roughly 7% of revenue. The vaccine cold chain business line consists of end-to-end solutions for vaccine transport, including real-time location and temperature monitoring. These are robust and reliable product lines to protect the therapeutic until the last mile of its journey. For many years, B Medical has served the developing world using innovative technology to ensure reliable temperature control for long transport times. Part of what makes B Medical unique is that they're not only dedicated to enabling the delivery of life-saving materials, but also to reliability. Their product guarantees are market-leading and in certain cases, three times the industry average. Their transport freezers are roto-molded out of durable, corrosion-free materials at their state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Luxembourg and India. In addition, B Medical is leading in its regulatory approvals, and their products are already certified with medical device approvals in the US and EU. As you can see on this slide, B Medical has many recognizable customers and partners and generates revenue across the globe, but mainly in Asia and Africa. Turning to Slide 14, I want to talk about the market that B Medical participates in and why we think this is such a tremendous opportunity for Azenta. The market they serve today has significant cold chain needs. More and more medicines in development utilize novel technologies that require advanced cold chain solutions. Just to give you a sense of the magnitude of the importance here, more than 20% of the world health organization's list of essential medicines require cold storage and transport. And it's reported that upwards of $35 billion of annual pharmaceutical industry losses are from temperature-related issues. Of course, the COVID-19 vaccine put a spotlight on the cold chain and opened the door for mRNA therapeutics, and we expect to see continued investment there. On the topic of COVID-19, I'll mention that the company did see an increase in demand for their products in 2021, as COVID vaccines requiring temperature-sensitive transport solutions became more readily available to developing countries. We think that this helped to drive awareness of the need for a reliable cold chain, but our vision for their portfolio is so much more than that. On its own, B Medical is a great business with a strong growth profile in a vibrant market, but just as we did when we acquired Bio Storage Technologies to launch ourselves into the outsourced sample bio repository business and when we acquired Gene, within the genomic space for the interrogation of samples, in B Medical, we see the same type of potential to drive tremendous incremental value from investments that we'll make to leverage the combined B Medical and Azenta capabilities into new market opportunities with new high-value products and services. Turning to Slide 15, let me outline some of those opportunities at a high level. I give just three of many examples of opportunities that are currently on our roadmap. The first is the expansion into other cold chain market opportunities using current B Medical capabilities. Using proven technologies for highly durable, highly configurable cold chain transport solutions with location and temperature reporting, products can be configured in size and form factor to handle from a single sample up to very large cold systems for both ground and air cargo transportation. Think about this as not just the last mile, but potentially all miles in the transport journey. We're already geared up to join our engineering teams for the development of more purpose-built cold chain solutions that are beyond current vaccine delivery. Second, the B Medical vaccine cold chain refrigeration systems are a critical link in the opportunity to build out human health infrastructure in developing countries where the B Medical last mild cold devices are used not only for the last touch for outbound vaccine distribution but also can be utilized as the first link in a cold chain return trip for population biological sample collections that can be banked in a local bio repository and ultimately studied in local genomics laboratories for the benefit of human health in a particular country; products and services already in our Azenta portfolio. And finally, it's an advanced investment in our future as a truly global company; the B Medical footprint brings an incremental three billion people, approximately 40% of the world's population, into our sphere of service. Most of this population is located in fast-growing emerging markets, which are as eager and deserving as any other part of the world to have access to the best of human health research and treatments. We're looking forward to learning from our B Medical colleagues and the people they serve as we accelerate the development of our offerings for these new markets. Finally, we're particularly enthusiastic about the leadership team that's built this purpose-driven business and the dedicated employee base, which has met the challenges of the demands for reliable and innovative products for global human health. This is an exceptional team and an exceptional company, and we're proud to have a chance to join with B Medical on our combined purpose to bring and, now, deliver breakthroughs faster. Now, let me turn the presentation back to Lindon who will cover the transaction financials in more detail.
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Thank you, Steve. Moving to Slide 16, I want to highlight some of the transaction details and a little more on the profile of B Medical Systems. The acquisition comes for a cash price at approximately €410 million to be paid at closing, with additional consideration up to €50 million tied to a performance-based earnout, which will span our fiscal year 2023. The transaction will be funded from cash deposits, which we hold in Europe, and we expect to close in October 2022, which is our first month of our fiscal 2023 year. In terms of the company profile, B Medical has generated $109 million of profitable revenue over the past 12 months into June 30. Their last full year financial statements reflected 20% adjusted EBITDA as we measure it. We do have planned investments to support the business growth, which will begin immediately. These will certainly continue to support the sales growth and portfolio development, as well as appropriate G&A support to bring them into a public company structure. We expect the transaction with investment to be accretive in this coming fiscal year on a non-GAAP basis and on a GAAP basis by fiscal year 2024. As you think about updating your models, I will add that the gross margins are quite comparable to our product segment and the revenue is more skewed toward the December quarter. This is due in part to the nature and timing of government spending. We will provide some further guidance for B Medical expectations on our fiscal year-end earnings call later this year. With the addition of B Medical, we will be running at a pace with annual revenue of over $650 million with significant growth and margin expansion opportunities. This revenue comes with further reach and covers more of the cold chain challenge, extending our leadership position across broad markets with an enhanced portfolio. Regarding our 2024 target model, we'll hold off on updates for now and plan to revisit the model later in fiscal 2023. We will, of course, outline what we have added for our acquisitions and give you a more complete picture of the horizon. I will wrap up with three messages from today's discussions. First, while our base business is running at a lower level of revenue and EBITDA than we estimated for the exit point of 2022, this does not sway us from our conviction of the growth and margin expansion capability in the business. It potentially sets us back some on a timeline for the model, but does not change the potential. Second, we are excited to be taking in both Barkey and B Medical. They add capabilities that fit with our strategic objectives and our existing customer needs. They extend our leadership position, but more importantly, make us more valuable to our current and expanding customer list. Finally, we are accelerating some investments for strategic growth. We will do this within these businesses and initiate further strategic initiatives to unlock some of the possibilities within our portfolio. All of these points will reshape our model and we will continue to give you clarity on the organic performance as well as that of our acquisitions and investments. Of course, we still have another $2 billion in cash on the balance sheet for additional capital deployment opportunities and we have the right team and the platform to support more capabilities and customers across the globe. With that, I would like to thank everyone for joining us on the call today, and I will turn the call back over to the operator for questions.
Operator, Operator
Our first question is from Jacob Johnson with Stephens. Please go ahead.
Jacob Johnson, Analyst
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess first, Steve, you talked about some COVID benefit at B Medical. Is there any way to quantify how much in revenue they were doing from COVID-related vaccines or maybe alternatively, just how that business has been growing the last couple of years? I think it's tough for any of us to have a crystal ball around COVID as we think ahead, but I think it would be helpful for some framework to quantify that if you could?
Steve Schwartz, CEO
It's an important question regarding COVID. We've known this company for many years and have closely monitored their progress, particularly how they managed the vaccine cold chain market. They performed exceptionally well and are a tremendous company. We observed their response during the COVID period, and they did everything a company should do. They successfully handled large volumes of shipments and responded to all market demands. Since we're not yet owners, we'll provide as much information as we can at this time. In 2021, their revenue attributed to COVID was approximately $28 million. However, looking ahead to 2022, the current forecast suggests that their revenue will exceed 2021 levels with minimal contribution from COVID, estimated at less than $5 million. This indicates strong performance and growth for the company. While COVID was a significant factor in 2021, we expect higher revenue in 2022 with almost no COVID-related income in the forecast. This is due to several factors, including the heightened awareness brought on by COVID, which affected market pandemic readiness. We’re witnessing changes in both the amount and the quality of funding for entities capable of delivering vaccines due to this pandemic awareness and readiness. Therefore, we are optimistic about the opportunities available, particularly for cold vaccines, and we've noted some investment in COVID vaccine specifically while observing investments aimed at enhancing pandemic preparedness across the markets we serve. I hope this information is helpful.
Jacob Johnson, Analyst
Yeah. That's super helpful, Steve, and then just, I guess, one follow up again on B Medical, Steve, just can you talk about the end customer they have? It sounds like there's some non-profits and kind of government organizations involved. Can you just talk about the end customer and maybe how that overlaps with your existing customer base today?
Steve Schwartz, CEO
Sure. So the customers obviously, ultimately are the patients who are vaccinated and cared for. The people who drive the purchasing are the governments, if you will, of these various countries, and we count today about 150 countries. Often the mechanism is that the aid agencies will provide funding in various forums for various countries, depending on specific need as to what qualifies for an investment. And often UNICEF is the agent in between to help to manage the funds and the distribution of funds, the receipt of product. So there's a mechanism in place that's existed for many, many years. The company operates in that configuration and that construct particularly well, but generally its individual countries taking care of their populations, working with the aid agencies, going through an intermediary. That's our point of contact for a majority of the business.
Operator, Operator
Next question is from Paul Knight with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.
Paul Knight, Analyst
Steve. The €410 million is that last 12 months ending June?
Steve Schwartz, CEO
€410 million is the purchase price. €109 million is the trailing 12 months ending June, correct revenue.
Paul Knight, Analyst
And do you have any thoughts on what a normalized growth rate is there?
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Yeah, Paul. We're assessing us to be a double-digit grower for us in our model expectations, and we look forward to giving a lot more color around that as Steve highlighted. There's been COVID ups and downs, but really strong growth in the recent times with those markets demanding a lot more.
Paul Knight, Analyst
I think the walk away from the June quarter on continuing business is kind of like your slideshow says 11% negative impact from COVID, I guess is kind of the way to think about it, right, relative to plus 6% ex currency. Does that mean 17% type growth, ex-COVID impact and FX?
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Yeah, that's right. I think you captured it just right. 3% reported if you take out the currency 6% organic and in our estimation is we had, if you remove the COVID impact from a year ago, remove the COVID impact this year, the underlying business then on a constant currency basis grew approximately 17%.
Operator, Operator
Next question is from Vijay Kumar with Evercore ISI and your line's open.
Vijay Kumar, Analyst
Hey guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just on Q4 guidance here, Lind perhaps to, so the midpoint of your revenue guidance implies flattish revenues, and I'm assuming acquisitions and FX kind of offset each other in Q4. Like how are we seeing like 0% organic in Q4? I understand, I think there's a $10 million code headwind in Q4, ex that I think you're guiding to perhaps 7% organic. Does that seem right like your LRP was for high teens revenue growth. Your China lockdowns, my understanding is that market has opened up, demand is normalizing. So why are we looking at almost zero organic here Q4?
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Yes, you're correct. We still have consequences from a year ago, especially when comparing to COVID, and we are accounting for foreign exchange as well. When we adjust for foreign exchange, we get our organic numbers, but we don’t adjust for COVID in that organic figure. The implications are present, but they do not change the fact that our revenue is on a declining trend compared to our expectations for the second half. I want to emphasize that we continue to see robust growth in our systems, especially in products, systems, and services. However, the largest issue regarding COVID comparisons will be in our Commercial and Industrial sector, which contributes to the midpoint of an 8% decline. As for services, we remain unsatisfied with the current figures. We are experiencing some sequential growth in SRS, which is promising, but in genomics, even though we are seeing some sequential expansion potential, growth rates are still below our expectations. Let me provide some context regarding our genomic segment. We've thoroughly reviewed this with our team and our customer base, particularly focusing on Q3 data and what we anticipate for Q4. In Q3, we noticed continued growth in unique customer accounts, which is encouraging for us. We have been reevaluating our marketing and rebranding efforts to see if we have impacted brand recognition after transitioning from Gene was to Azenta or from Fluid X to Azenta. We believe our team has managed this transition effectively and we are investing in marketing efforts to support this. While there may be concerns about the growth curve for Azenta, we feel confident about the growth in unique customer accounts. Furthermore, beneath these unique customer accounts, we are seeing stability and expansion in purchasing behavior, particularly in genomics where many buyers are involved under authorized purchase orders. This suggests that the spending level has slowed but does not indicate a reduction in our customer engagement. Geographically, we recorded high single-digit growth, around 7% to 9%, at constant currency in Europe and in the US for genomics. While this is not the strong double-digit growth we’ve experienced previously, it also isn't reflective of the 1% seen in the overall results. The downturn primarily resulted from the challenges we faced in China during Q3. Looking ahead to Q4, we expect some relief and recovery in China, as we’ve noticed strengthening there. We’ve seen our weekly order load gain momentum through June and July, especially in the NGS area, and we don't foresee any pullback from that trend. We have established a range for projections with a modest expansion at the midpoint and even more at the upper end, but we also acknowledge that the future outlook is somewhat uncertain. As you pointed out, we were disappointed with our pre-announcement figures, but we will always strive to be as clear and transparent with you as possible. We see strong performance across our customer base despite a slight pullback in spending at this point, and we will continue to observe the market and move forward.
Vijay Kumar, Analyst
And just, sorry just to clarify that Lindon, I have numbers right? COVID is going to be a $10 million headwind in Q4 FX, probably three to four points of headwinds. And then you have incremental M&A revenues of $3 million to $4 million. Are there any other moving parts here in for Q4 in the $131 million to $141 million?
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Not moving parts other than what I would highlight is differentiated in a sequential basis. We, think that the products which you've captured it in your dynamics products will be just to touch softer, excluding Barkey and services will be slightly expanding and then Barkey gives you the net upwards.
Vijay Kumar, Analyst
Regarding the EPS guidance, for Q4 at the midpoint it stands at around $0.08, which suggests an annual EPS of $0.43. This represents a decline compared to the previous year. On a reported basis, revenues are expected to increase in the high single digits, possibly even low double digits. Additionally, the margin targets indicate a year-over-year margin degradation. Can you provide an update on the changes to the margin in the last three to six months?
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Certainly, the top line contributes to leverage with volume, but it also has negative effects when there’s a sequential decline, as we’ve just experienced. I'm focusing less on the year-over-year comparison and more on the sequential aspect. We've encountered labor inflation recently, and with the sequential decrease of $130 million in revenue, the leverage works against us in this situation. I anticipate that our margin levels will remain consistent with current revenue levels, with similar gross margins expected. Our efforts are focused on driving top-line growth while also implementing pricing strategies. We are familiar with the costs associated with manufacturing, and on the services side, we’re still facing challenges in attracting talent, which influences our costs since we aim to deliver quality to our customers. This will contribute to pricing adjustments. While we are pursuing operational efficiencies, the gross margin is significantly impacted in the latter half of the year. We are carefully managing operating expenses despite our ongoing investments. We firmly believe that we are positioned well for growth with these investments and we will continue to move forward. Our focus is on achieving stable performance in gross margin and revenue in the upcoming quarter, and we will provide an update at the end of this fiscal year regarding our outlook for 2023.
Operator, Operator
Next question is from David Saxon with Needham and your line is open.
David Saxon, Analyst
Yeah. Good afternoon, Steven, Lindon. Thanks for taking the questions, maybe one on the base business, one on the deals. So first one, just on SRS you called out increasing samples under management. So, just curious why it was down sequentially in the third, there were any factors you'd call out. And then also, can you just give an update on kind of the strength of the customer pipeline there?
Steve Schwartz, CEO
In our SRS business, we achieved a 19% year-over-year growth. Sequentially, we observed growth in pure storage. However, there was some softness in our kid and logistics informatics sectors. While we take these matters seriously, they do not yet reflect our enterprise partnerships as we continue to collect and manage samples. Our data services are integral to our storage offerings, and customers subscribe to these storage services because of the added value. This growth is evident, as we have seen a consistent uptick of $5 million over the past year. We expect to maintain this momentum into the fourth quarter, although the flatness you mentioned pertains more to other aspects of our business. Let me pause there and return to the remainder of your question.
David Saxon, Analyst
Yeah, just around the pipeline. I guess over the last year or so you announced some larger contracts. So just wondering if we could expect anything in the near future on that front?
Steve Schwartz, CEO
So one, we have signed significant contracts already and that's contributed to what's come into storage. We've continued to see strong pipeline coming through the second half and we do expect. So the answer, the net of it is yes, absolutely. Yes. Again, we're not deterred at all by the quarter-to-quarter results on the SRS business.
Lindon Robertson, CFO
I want to emphasize an important point. In the services business, SRS has been a standout performer and serves as a foundation for our partnership relationships. We manage their assets and communicate with those customers daily about what we have and how we can help advance their research by leveraging pieces of their asset database. Regarding genomics, as I mentioned earlier, it's highly transactional with high volume and quick turnaround times, which fosters long-lasting relationships with expanded customer accounts. This reflects a shift in spending behavior based on our assessments. In terms of our product offerings, we have a strong line of ultra-cold storage systems, including cryogenic products that have seen impressive growth rates of 25% to 27% year-over-year, along with sequential expansion. The pipeline remains robust as we move into 2023. We recently had our best quarter in terms of bookings. Last year, the C&I segment accounted for about two-thirds of our product revenue, but now it has decreased to slightly less than half. We're adjusting our portfolio accordingly but will continue to market the C&I side. Our main focus and investment remain on differentiated products, specifically our cryogenic capabilities, which our enterprise customers rely on. We believe that B Medical Systems and Barkey will further enhance our leadership in this area. Thank you for the question, and I’m open to any clarifications on what I've discussed. Yeah, those are good questions. One thing I'm happy to say is that both fit the profile and the criteria that we've described to our investor base. Both of them, we went under thorough review under both obviously, and they both clear our five-year ROIC models that we use as a filter. And your question on synergies, neither rely on cost synergies, neither of them were banked on revenue synergies. What we do see in the B Medical Systems opportunity as Steve highlighted is options to expand and innovate there with them.
Yuan Zhi, Analyst
Hi, thanks for taking our questions. We have a couple. First in terms of the genomic services, just want to hear your thoughts. Is the impact from the weakness of your mind in general or it's from the competitor taking market shares that the growth is not that great in this category?
Matt McManus, COO
Sure. So this is Matt McManus. It's a great question. I think Lindon aligned a lot of the analytics that we've done in looking at it. And as he pointed out, the customer account has remained largely stable for us as the ordering NPI level. And so what we're seeing is the continued engagement with the customer base and that those same customers have continued to order and we've added new customers as well. And so from a market dynamic standpoint near, as we can tell, it's more that our customers are ordering less from us and not actually switching services, which is encouraging but also points to some market effect just in the slowness of the orders from customers, either reducing and we hear this, from our customers that they're actually doing somewhat less work or have delayed some of their projects. So while the market environment isn't the one that we've certainly hoped for in the last quarter, we think that our relationship and really our interactions with our customers remain strong. We're not losing them to the competition.
Yuan Zhi, Analyst
Yeah. Got it. And maybe Lindon, can you comment on when we divide the revenue in different geographic areas, like in the US EU and China? Is it only that China has a slowdown in terms of overall revenue and all other areas are maintaining strong growth?
Lindon Robertson, CFO
In China, during the third quarter, we experienced a lockdown for a couple of weeks in April. We had considered how this affected our deliveries when we provided guidance, contributing to the decline both sequentially and year-over-year in China. While we did see some expansion in genomics products in China, the larger factor was demand-driven, resembling rolling lockdowns throughout the quarter. However, we are starting to see the market open up, and in June, we noticed an increase in customer numbers, which is encouraging. In terms of our guidance, we expect some improvement from China. In Europe and the US, we see high single-digit revenue growth on an organic basis, which is not as strong as we would prefer. We plan to continue pushing in marketing, but the current order load suggests stability with slight expansion overall. There is potential for growth at the upper end of our expectations, but we need to be realistic about the lower end as well. Currently, our expectations in the genomic space are somewhat below our desired levels. We have some backlog in next-generation sequencing, less in gene synthesis, and nearly none in Sanger, which is a reality we must address.
Yuan Zhi, Analyst
Yeah. Got it. That's very helpful. And maybe one last question for me just curious which part of your current business has overlap with B Medical System or you see potential to say overlap there?
Steve Schwartz, CEO
Yeah, we think there's very little overlap, Yuan. This is really a tremendous opportunity we think to add technical capabilities, that'll enhance the offerings that we have. And as we talked about opportunities going forward, just from a human health standpoint, to utilize that link in the cold chain to couple to other offerings that we have as Azenta, we think are just tremendous long-term value opportunities for us. So we're really pleased by the capability. Certainly refrigeration technologies are interesting, but with B Medical, they use solar direct drive from power source, things that we can utilize. They have tracking devices and a long history of data collection. So we think those are offerings that will really enhance the things that we do already in the company. So we're really enthusiastic about adding that technical capability as they are about combining with Azenta. We think it's just a great match with very little overlap and a lot of complimentary capabilities.
Operator, Operator
With no further questions, I'll turn it back to Lindon for closing remarks.
Lindon Robertson, CFO
Thank you everyone. We always come to you with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about our business, and today is no different. The results have a lot baked in, but our enthusiasm for the future remains strong, particularly highlighted by our investments in B Medical and Barkey. We are optimistic about the direction of these businesses and will continue to invest in every aspect of our operations for organic growth. As I mentioned earlier, our goal is to focus on the future, and we will provide updates on our long-term model, particularly after gathering experience with B Medical. Although we are exiting the year with a lower EBITDA traction than anticipated, we remain enthusiastic about where this model is leading us. Additionally, we have another $2 billion available on our balance sheet to further invest in this business, which adds to our excitement. We appreciate everyone's time and look forward to following up with you. We understand busy schedules are ahead, and we are participating in a conference this week. Please keep an eye on our recent press releases, as we have more conferences coming up in the next few weeks. We look forward to connecting with you in person. Thank you very much.
Operator, Operator
And that does conclude our call for today and we thank everyone for participating, and you can now disconnect.