Alliance Pharma PLC (LON:APH) has acquired all of the rights to an anaesthetic gel product, Ametop from FTSE 100-listed medical technology business Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN. for a consideration of US$7.5mln.
John Dawson, Alliance Pharma's chief executive, said: "The acquisition will be immediately earnings enhancing, accretive to our underlying return on invested capital, and it fits well in our existing bedrock business operations."
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Ametop is a topical anaesthetic gel product, used for numbing the skin prior to intravenous injection or cannulation, which Smith & Nephew has been selling in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and Canada for over 10 years.
In the 12 months to 31 October 2017, Smith & Nephew’s total sales of Ametop were US$2.8mln, with approximately 75% of sales derived from the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
In addition to the Ametop rights, Alliance will be acquiring inventory, which is expected to have a value of approximately US$0.4mln.
Consideration funded from existing cash and bank facilities
Alliance Pharma said the acquisition consideration is being funded from existing cash and bank facilities, including drawdown from its £35mln Revolving Credit Facility (RCF).
The AIM-listed specialty pharmaceutical company said that, after this drawdown, around £11mln of the RCF remains available to fund further acquisitions.
The group added that its adjusted net debt/EBITDA ratio will increase to approximately 2.3 times as at 31 December 2017 as a result of this drawdown and has recently agreed an increase in its debt covenant from 2.5 times to 3.0 times.
In a note to clients, analysts at Numis Securities commented: “The product is expected to add 2% to Alliance's sales footprint in FY18E and while we make no changes to our forecasts at this stage, we could anticipate low single digit earnings up-tick from the deal from FY18E onwards.”
They added: “Alliance trades on 15x 2017E EPS against 12% 2017-19E CAGR EPS, which we continue to view as attractive.”
Numis reiterated a ‘buy’ rating and 66p target price on Alliance Pharma shares.
In late afternoon trading, Alliance Pharma shares were 0.4%, or 0.25p lower at 58.75p.
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