Samsung BioLogics said Thursday that it recorded 535.8 billion won ($479 million) in sales last year, a 15.3 percent increase from 2017.

The company registered 55.7 billion won in operating profit, down 15.6 percent from 2017, while posting a net profit of 224.1 billion won, a drastic 321.1 billion won increase from the previous year.

“Sales increased due to rising capacity utilization at the second plant while operating profit declined due to depreciation costs and increased commission on the third plant,” the company said. “The net profit increase can be attributed to the cash inflow from the completion of the transfer of assets to Biogen in November last year.”

Samsung Biologics transferred about 9.2 million Samsung Bioepis shares to Biogen, and received 759.5 billion won in cash according to the call option agreement with Biogen.

The debt-to-equity ratio, which was 81 percent in 2017, dropped to 44 percent last year as derivative liabilities disappeared with the completion of the call option from Biogen. Cash assets also increased from 350 billion in 2017 to 1.1 trillion in 2018.

Samsung BioLogics presented plans for 2019 at the 2019 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

"As of January 2019, we have received 41 orders, including 27 contract manufacturing organization (CMO) orders and 14 contract development organization (CDO) and contract research organization (CRO) projects,” Samsung BioLogics CEO Kim Tae-han said at the conference. “We are also in the process of negotiating orders with more than 20 companies and plan to add 10 CDO and CRO orders by the end of this year.”

Kim also unveiled the company’s plan to raise the order amount of its third plant to 50 percent of production capacity this year. The order amount at the third plant remains at 25 percent of its capacity now.