(Alliance News) - ECO Animal Health Group PLC on Monday reported a "record" annual performance and said its chief executive plans to step down at the end of 2022.
Shares in ECO Animal Health were down 7.6% to 323.31 pence each in London on Monday morning.
Pretax profit for the year that ended March 31 was GBP20.3 million, up sharply from GBP6.1 million.
However, the livestock pharmaceutical products firm's revenue rose 46% to a record GBP105.6 million, from GBP72.1 million.
ECO Animal Health said it saw strong demand for its Aivlosin product, which treats infectious diseases in pigs.
"The main contributor to the growth was China where a favourable combination of industry structural changes and restocking of the pig herd after the African Swine Fever epidemic together with changes in regulations for use of antibiotics in feed created exceptional levels of demand and sales opportunity for Aivlosin," ECO Animal said.
The Surrey, England-based company also saw "good" growth of its business in the key territories of North America and Brazil and "steady" progress elsewhere.
The board proposed a dividend of 1.0 pence per share for financial 2021, having not declared one in the year prior. However, it is still far below the pre-pandemic dividend of 11.04 pence per share in financial 2019.
Performance in the first three months of the new financial year has been "solid" with, group revenue marginally lower annually.
"The strength seen in our Chinese market at the end of the last financial year has eased significantly following the recent pork price declines. This decline began to reverse ahead of the recent announcement on 28th June 2021 by the China state planner that central and local governments will start buying pork for state reserves. We have seen continuing strength in Latin America and early signs of recovery in Southeast Asia," ECO Animal explained.
"The group's historical pattern of second half revenue weighting is expected to be retained during the current financial year, particularly in relation to China where the market softness in the first three months of our current financial year is expected to reverse later in the year as state purchasing of pork improves the producer margins and encourages the purchasing of the group's products."
The company also announced on Monday that Chief Executive Marc Loomes has informed the board that he plans to retire on December 31, 2022. During his tenure, the company has grown sales revenues over sevenfold to over GBP100 million from GBP14 million, ECO Animal noted.
The company has therefore commenced a formal process with an executive search consultancy to identify and appoint a successor to take over from Loomes during the 2022-23 financial year.
By Amrit Sahota; newsroom@alliancenews.com
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Eco Animal (EAH)