(Alliance News) - Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC on Monday reported a considerable increase in half-year profit, with particularly strong revenue growth from Companion Animal Products.
For the six months ended December 31, Dechra's pretax profit was GBP35.4 million, up 82% from GBP19.5 million the year before.
This was revenue increased to GBP299.8 million from GBP248.5 million the year before, with 21.7% European Pharmaceuticals revenue growth and 21.9% North American Pharmacueticals revenue growth at constant exchange rate, 23% and 17% respectively at actual exchange rate.
"Revenue growth has been strong, especially within Companion Animal Products, as pet ownership and welfare has become more important to people as the Covid-19 pandemic has changed peoples' way of living," Dechra noted.
Companion Animal Products revenue rose to GBP219.0 million from GBP173.7 million, 26% higher at AER and 27% higher at CER.
"The group also benefited from a significantly improved supply chain and a pre-Brexit inventory build. The strong revenue growth, good gross margin and lower than usual underlying selling, general and administrative costs, due to Covid-19 restricting activity, has resulted in a stronger than expected operating profit performance," the company added.
Dechra declared an 11.11 pence per share interim dividend, up 8.0% year-on-year from 10.29p.
In terms of outlook, Dechra said: "Trading in the second half remains robust, although we are starting to see the pre-Brexit inventory build unwind and, therefore, we expect the balance of trading to be first half weighted.
"Overall the outlook for the full year remains positive and in line with our January trading update. We expect the strong favourable market conditions to remain, our recent acquisitions to perform well and our supply chain improvement to continue. We continue to demonstrate our ability to execute our strategy so despite the ongoing challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic we remain confident in our future prospects."
Shares in Dechra were down 1.9% at 3,542.00 pence in London on Monday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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