By Klaus Lauer, Elizaveta Gladun and Paolo Laudani
(Reuters) -German publishing group Springer Nature forecast higher revenue for 2025 on Tuesday, after it posted full-year revenue in line with market expectations, driven by strong performance of its Open Access journals portfolio.
The publisher of the scientific journal Nature expects sales of 1.89 billion to 1.94 billion euros ($2.06 billion to 2.12 billion) in 2025, compared with 1.85 billion last year.
It also forecast annual operating earnings at least in line with the 512 million euros it posted for 2024.
The company’s shares fell 7.3% as of 1100 GMT, with analysts at Barclays and Deutsche Bank saying the profit guidance was slightly below analysts’ consensus when adjusted for currency exchange effects.
Springer Nature published 50% of its primary research articles through the open access service last year, marking a shift from traditional journal subscriptions to a model where research funders or authors cover publication costs.
“The 50% was for us really an important milestone,” CEO Frank Vrancken Peeters told Reuters.
Whether Springer Nature will reach 75% in the next three years remains to be seen, he added.
“As an organization, we are committed to driving open access because we know it just needs to be better visibility of research results,” Vrancken Peeters said.
The academic publisher invested 177 million euros in technology and AI to improve its publishing process in 2024, it said in its first annual report since its initial public offering in October.
In November, the company said it had used the IPO proceeds of 200 million euros to repay outstanding debt, reducing net debt to 2.5 times its core profit (EBITDA), compared with 4.5x in 2023.
It is committed to cutting the debt ratio further to 1.5x to 2x, from 2.3x currently, CFO Alexandra Dambeck told Reuters.
($1 = 0.9166 euros)
(Reporting by Klaus Lauer, writing by Elizaveta Gladun and Paolo Laudani in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
