Hikma Pharmaceuticals raises full year guidance

Hikma Pharmaceuticals said it had made a strong start to the first half of its financial year, with all of its businesses performing well, as it raised its guidance to around 20 per cent revenue growth for the year.The multinational pharmaceutical firm said revenue increased by 19.9% to $638.3m in the six months ended June 30th. Pre-tax profit jumped to £111.6m during the period from £57.8m earlier. Across its divisions branded revenue grew 3.2%, or 8.7% in constant currency and is on track for around 11% full year revenue growth in constant currency."We are expecting stronger sales in the MENA region in the second half and we continue to expect our branded business, on a constant currency basis, to deliver revenue growth of around 11% for the full year and a slight improvement in adjusted operating margin" the group said in a statement.Global injectables revenue grew 9.5%, with adjusted operating margin of 28.6%, after strong performances in the US and Europe. Elsewhere generics revenue increased by 136.6% to $132.0m. Full year revenue guidance was raised to $230m after robust doxycycline sales.Chief Executive Officer Said Darwazah commented: "The group has made an excellent start to this year and all of our businesses are performing well." "In the MENA region, our strategic focus on higher value products and operational efficiencies is delivering improved profitability. Our global injectables business continues to deliver good growth in revenue and a significant improvement in profitability. In particular, we are benefiting from strong demand for our products in the US and new product launches." Hikma underlined its confidence in future trading with an increased interim dividend of 7.0c per share, up from 6.0c in the first half of 2012. A special dividend of 3.0c per share has been offered, reflecting the robust performance of the generics business, Hikma said.CJ