Hikma Pharmaceuticals Regulatory News (HIK)

5 Nov 2008 07:00



Interim Management Statement

London, 5 November 2008 - Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC ("Hikma")(LSE:HIK)(DIFX:HIK), the fast growing multinational pharmaceutical group focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of generic and in-licensed pharmaceutical products, is today updating the market on its current trading and financial position relating to the period from 1 July 2008 to date as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. 

Sales continued to grow steadily in the period and in the nine months to 30 September 2008 Group sales grew by approximately 32%. Since the end of September, the Branded and Injectables businesses have continued to drive sales growth in the Group and we are confident of delivering Group sales growth above 30% for the full year.

We continued to see excellent growth in our Branded business during the period, driven by favourable market demographics across the MENA region. Organic sales growth remained strong, with further growth coming from the integration of APM and Hikma Egypt, which continued to perform extremely well. We remain confident that we will deliver Branded revenue growth of approximately 60% for the full year. As in the first half, Branded operating margins for the full year will reflect the cost of the additional investment required to support the strong growth seen in this segment of the business.

Our global Injectables business continued to perform well in the MENA region during the period, benefiting from strong demand for our products. Sales in our US injectables business also progressed in line with our expectations. Sales growth in our European markets was lower than expected, reflecting lower volumes and increased pricing pressure, and we expect this to continue through the end of the year.

In our Generics business, where difficult trading conditions in the US led to an operating loss for the first half of the year, efforts to improve operating performance were ongoing during the period. As anticipated at the time of our interim results, these efforts have begun to have an effect, and we remain on track to reduce operating losses in the second half as previously reported to the market. 

Our current net debt position is largely unchanged since the end of June. We expect to continue to benefit from the diversity of our debt financing, which is spread across multiple banks and geographies and which limits refinancing risk. 

We will announce our preliminary results for the twelve months to 31 December 2008 on 17 March 2009.

-- ENDS --

Enquiries:

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC

Said Darwazah, Chief Executive Officer

Bassam Kanaan, Chief Financial Officer

Susan Ringdal, Investor Relations Director  Tel: +44 (0)20 7399 2760

Brunswick Group

Jon Coles / Justine McIlroy Tel: +44 (0)20 7404 5959

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC is a fast growing multinational group focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of both branded and non-branded generic and in-licensed pharmaceutical products. Hikma's operations are conducted through three businesses: "Branded", "Injectables" and "Generics". Hikma's operations are based principally in the Middle East and North Africa ("MENA") region, where it is a market leader and sells across 17 countries, the United States and Europe. In 2007, the Group achieved revenues of $449 million and profit attributable to shareholders was $63 million. For news and other information, please visit www.hikma.com.