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LONDON (Alliance News) - Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC on Tuesday reiterated its guidance of around 5% revenue growth for all of 2014, as it raised its guidance for its Generics business and lowered guidance for Branded products, while reporting a rise in pretax profit in the half year to end-June.
The pharmaceutical company maintained its interim dividend of 7.0 cents, in line with the previous year, and declared a special dividend of 4.0 cents, which it said was due to the "exceptionally strong market opportunities" secured by its US businesses during the period.
Hikma posted a pretax profit of USD219 million in the recent half, up from USD111 million in the same period a year before, as revenue rose to USD738 million from USD638 million and it posted fewer exceptional costs. In the previous year, the company posted an USD19 million exceptional cost due to compliance work at its Eatontown facility in the US state of New Jersey.
In Hikma's Branded business, the company said good performances in most markets, seeing strong growth in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, although lower-than-expected sales in Algeria due to restructuring. Also, escalating conflicts in Sudan, Iraq and Libya hit its business in those countries.
The Branded business is now expected to see single-digit revenue growth for the full year, with an adjusted operating margin below 2013. At its full-year results in March, Hikma said it expected the division to see revenue growth of 10%.
In its Injectables division, revenue rose 41%, driven by strong growth in the US.
Hikma maintained its expectations that Injectables revenues will grow over 20% for the full year, due to a first half weighting, with an adjusted operating margin of around 35%, before dilution from its acquisition of a manufacturing site from Ben Venue Laboratories Inc.
It expects this acquisition to be slightly dilutive in 2014 and 2015, although it will add to earnings thereafter.
In Generics, revenue decline to USD128 million from USD132 million in the first half, as the company began to re-launch products following the recommissioning of the Eatontown facility.
The company has raised its expectations for this business, now expecting a full-year revenue of around USD200 million with an adjusted operating margin of over 45%. Previously it had guided full-year revenue of around USD170 million, with an adjusted operating margin of over 25%.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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