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LONDON (Alliance News) - Animal health drugmaker ECO Animal Health Group PLC hiked its interim dividend and proposed a special payout Monday after profit and revenue both grew strongly and its order book continues to expand.
For the six months ended September, pretax profit widened 15% to GBP6.8 million from GBP5.9 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 8.6% to GBP31.7 million from GBP29.2 million the year before.
"The second half of the year has started well with a strong and growing order book," ECO Chairman Peter Lawrence said. "ECO has a sound balance sheet with good and reliable cash generation."
ECO Animal proposed a 4.0 pence per share interim dividend, up 25% from 3.2p the year prior. The firm also proposed a special dividend of 3.5p per share, compared to no such special payout last year.
"The company continues to invest in product development programmes, such as our recently announced vaccine initiatives," Lawrence added. "We are also working to broaden our portfolio, obtain additional Aivlosin marketing authorisations and further improve efficiencies in production. I look forward with confidence to reporting another set of impressive results in 2019."
In August, ECO Animal received marketing authorisation for its Aivlosin drug in Vietnam for treatment of pigs and poultry.
Shares in ECO Animal were 3.5% lower at 410.00 pence on Monday.