LONDON (Alliance News) - Niche pharmaceuticals company Quantum Pharma PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit surged in its financial year to the end of January due to lower financing costs as revenue grew.
Quantum said its pretax profit for the year to the end of January was GBP6.2 million, compared to GBP1.1 million a year earlier, mainly due to the group having booked GBP5.6 million in financing costs the year before.
Revenue grew to GBP70.0 million from GBP61.7 million, helped by the acquisitions of Lamda and NuPharm, investments made in its senior management team, the launch of products under its Mucodis range, and the out-licence of its Avitol capsules to a German pharmaceutical company.
The group also delivered significant tender and contract wins in its homecare business and made progress on developing its Biodose Connect product.
Quantum added that its product pipeline has grown significantly, both in terms of size and value.
Quantum will pay a 1.0 pence per share final dividend, taking its total payout to 1.5p. That compares to the 0.25p final dividend only paid out for the previous financial year.
Chief Executive Andrew Scaife said trading so far in 2016 has been strong, giving the group confidence on the outlook for the full current financial year.
"During the past year, we have made progress in developing several key aspects of Quantum Pharma's business, to put in place a strong platform from which the group can deliver its strategy. We have improved the group's infrastructure and management, and reviewed and significantly improved our processes around monitoring and delivery of the product pipeline, in addition to receiving external validation of its potential value," said Scaife.
"I am excited about the potential of the product pipeline and am pleased that, since the year end, we have received marketing authorisations or approvals to launch three new licensed products with five product lines into the UK market," he added.
Shares in Quantum were up 6.2% to 64.50p.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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