The acquisition of the Sinclair Healthcare Products business at the end of last year allowed Alliance Pharma plc (LON:APH) to more than double its revenue and profit in the first half of 2016.
Alliance said that the deal – completed last December – added 27 new products to its offering and also extended the company’s reach to over 100 countries.
As a result, revenue for the six months to 30 June increased by 104% to £46.4mln, while profit before tax also rose sharply to £11.7mln, an increase of 113% compared to the same period in 2015.
"Alliance Pharma is a transformed business with sales and profits in the first half of 2016 having doubled from those of 2015,” said chairman Andrew Smith.
“We are already seeing opportunities to exploit our expanded international capabilities.”
The UK remains Alliance’s largest territory, returning sales of £24mln (H1 2015: £18.3mln), although the biggest growth came from abroad.
Sales to Western Europe (excluding the UK) rose to £11.7mln in the period (H1 2015: £2.3mln), while sales outside of Western Europe also sharply increased to £10.7mln from £2.2mln a year earlier.
“We’ve transformed in terms of geographical footprint. Prior to the [Sinclair] acquisition, 80% of our sales were from the UK, now it’s 50%,” said chief executive John Dawson.
The specialty pharma company said its scar reduction product Kelo-cote is now its largest selling brand having achieved sales of £4.1mln in the half.
“A big market for Kelo-cote is in caesarean sections, in childbirth, and that is now our biggest product,” Dawson told Proactive.
“It came from Sinclair, it’s sold in 63 countries around the world and it’s growing very well.”
Dawson also touched on the distribution rights Alliance has recently extended for Diclectin, a treatment for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy which he described as “a huge untapped market.”
Excluding acquisitions, the original Alliance portfolio of products achieved underlying revenue growth of 6%.
Sterling’s weakness and an increase in working capital saw net bank debt rise to £79mln.
Alliance told investors that it is still “too early” to assess what impact Brexit might have, although it doesn’t expect market access to be a problem.
After enjoying a successful period thanks largely to new acquisitions, the firm said it wasn’t anticipating making any more in the short term, although it would “remain alert to bolt-on opportunities” in the New Year.
In line with the firm’s progressive dividend policy, the interim dividend was raised by 10% to 0.403p per share.
Shares were down 2.5p, or 5%, to 48.5p.
--Updates for CEO comment and share price--