* Eyes expansion in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand
* Unlikely to buy in Latin America due to high price tags
* Headline earnings per share at 371 cents vs 316 cents
By Tiisetso Motsoeneng
JOHANNESBURG, March 7 (Reuters) - Africa's biggest genericdrugs maker, Aspen Pharmacare, said on Thursday it islooking to expand further in Asia to counter slack demand andregulatory pressures in Australia, one of its biggest markets.
Aspen, based in Durban, has made an aggressive push overseasto benefit from patent expiries on best-selling name-brand drugsworth billions of dollars, which has helped to fuel a more thansix-fold increase in its share price since early 2008.
But the company, 19 percent owned by Britain'sGlaxoSmithKline, said it might struggle to grow furtherin Australia, due to slowing demand and government interventionon drug pricing.
"Growth is going to slow in all probability because theactual pharmaceutical demand is not growing," Gus Attridge,Aspen's deputy chief executive, said, referring to Australia,the company's biggest market in south-east Asia.
Aspen, which reported a 17 percent increase in half-yearprofit on Thursday, plans to build a factory in Indonesia andopen offices in other several southeast Asian countries,including Malaysia and Thailand by year-end.
It expects its Asia-Pacific division to become its biggestrevenue generator in the coming year after acquiring Australia'sSigma Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline brands in Australia last year.
Attridge said the company, which made about 750 million randin sales from its business in Latin America, was steering clearof acquisition in the region because valuations were too high.
Aspen's headline earnings per share rose 17 percent to 371cents in the six months to end-December helped by a robustshowing at the Asia-Pacific business.
Sales increased 20 percent to 9 billion rand ($991 million)with core earnings, or EBITDA, at the Asia Pacific unitincreasing by 29 percent, helped by strengthening currencies.
Shares in Aspen fell 0.8 percent to 185.50 rand as of 1415GMT, lagging a slightly higher JSE Top-40 index. Aspenis currently trading at about 30 times its historic earnings, orabout double the average for the index.