Nils Herzing of Shareholder Value Beteiligungen presented his thesis on Gerresheimer AG (Germany: GXI) at European Investing Summit 2026.
Thesis summary:
Gerresheimer, founded as a glass manufacturer in 1864, makes drug containment and delivery solutions for the pharma industry, with about €2.3 billion in revenue and a historic EBITDA margin averaging around 20%. Nils calls it a once super-stable compounder knocked off course by aggressive management, a misstep in the €800 million Bormioli Pharma acquisition and a BaFin investigation. Like his NORMA Group pitch, up 61% in nine months, he sees a special situation and targets at least 1.6x his money within 15 months.
Gerresheimer sells mission-critical C-components: vials for €0.045, ready-to-fill syringes for €0.25 and auto-injectors for a couple of euros. Packaging is designed into the FDA approval, so switching suppliers means recertification, not worth doing to save a few cents. Product lifecycles exceed seven years, Gerresheimer is often one of only two suppliers, and contracts carry annual price step-ups tied to energy costs or CPI. Plastics & Devices is 55% of revenue and Primary Packaging Glass 45%, with contract manufacturing the key growth area.
Under CEO Dietmar Siemssen, the shares climbed to about €120 on GLP-1 enthusiasm, then slid; a KKR and Warburg Pincus consortium bid close to €90 in March 2025. Bill-and-hold deals pulled forward roughly €36 million of revenue, under 2% of sales, yet led to a restatement, delayed reports, MDAX exclusion and leverage near 5x. Gerresheimer sold Centor (€205 million in sales, 36.6% EBITDA margin) and Primary Packaging Plastics to Apax for €1.5 billion, cutting net debt to around €600 million.
CFO Wolf Lehmann, formerly of Befesa, and Achim Schalk now run the company, while Reiner Beaujean, CFO during the record-margin years of 2012-2019, chairs the audit committee and Klaus Röhrig of Active Ownership joins him on the supervisory board. Active Ownership owns 18.1%, Nationale-Nederlanden controls 16% including options, and over 3% of shares are sold short. Nils expects front-loaded catalysts: early-November Q3 results, guidance met, MDAX re-entry once reports are filed, and renewed interest from Stevanato, West or private equity.
At €32.70 a share, the remaining company trades at an EV of €1.7 billion, 6.1x EBITDA and 0.9x sales, versus 28.1x EBITDA at West and 16.1x at Stevanato. Nils expects molded glass, with roughly €80 million of run-rate EBITDA, to sell at about 6x by end-2027, leaving a nearly debt-free new Gerresheimer with 5-10% growth and 18-20% margin potential. At 9x EBITDA, he values it at €48.87 per share, with €55-60 possible in 2028. Risks include refinancing at EURIBOR plus 3.5% and the CEO search.
Disclaimer
European Investing Summit 2026 was held from October 20-23, 2026. The content of this website is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. The content is distributed for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation to sell or buy any security or other investment, or undertake any investment strategy. There are no warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or results obtained from any information set forth on this website. BeyondProxy’s officers, directors, employees, and/or contributing authors may have positions in and may, from time to time, make purchases or sales of the securities or other investments discussed or evaluated herein.
