United Drug profits rise 7%

PHARMACEUTICAL AND healthcare services group United Drug has reported a 7 per cent rise in pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of March 2012.

The company said pre-tax profits totalled €35 million compared to €32.5 million for the same period a year earlier. Operating profits also rose by 7 per cent to €39.5 million as against €37 million while group revenue was unchanged at €894 million.

Earnings per share were up 8 per cent up on the same period in 2011, to €11.80

The board of directors has declared an interim dividend of 2.48 cents per share, up 3 per cent on the 2011 interim dividend.

United Drug said businesses outside Ireland accounted for more than 70 per cent of operating profits during the six months under review, with 25 per cent of profits coming from the US.

“Having previously seen an almost negligible contribution from the US, we’re now seeing very good growth in that market and strong margins,” chief executive Liam Fitzgerald told The Irish Times.

“Our goal is to increase the pace and scope of our international business,” Mr Fitzgerald added. “It is our firm belief that we need to be a strong player in the US market and that this will drive opportunity elsewhere.”

United is listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges. Outside Ireland it has businesses in Britain, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and the US.

Mr Fitzgerald said the group increasingly saw itself as an international healthcare services group that happened to be headquartered in Ireland rather than simply an Irish company.

As well as being a major wholesale distributor to the pharmaceutical industry, United Drug also delivers pharmaceutical products and vaccines to hospitals around the State.

United said that based on the good trading performance for the year to date, adjusted diluted earnings per share for the year to the end of September are expected to be between 4 per cent and 8 per cent.

United’s sales, marketing and medical division and the packaging and specialty division performed particularly strongly during the six-months to the end of March, with the businesses now contributing more than 70 per cent of profits.