A tax credit of £1.8m allowed oral and inhalation drug group Skyepharma (SKP) to finish 2013 in the black. And even stripping out the tax credit, pre-tax losses were only £1m, compared with nearly 10 times that in 2012, after increased supply of its inhalation product flutiform boosted revenues by 25 per cent.
By the end of 2013, Skyepharma had launched flutiform in 13 more countries, including Italy and Japan. In-market sales in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany also reported healthy growth. The group benefited from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)'s launch of new new inhaler products utilising Skypharma's technology in Europe and Japan. Now the group receives revenues and royalties from 15 approved products. These collectively generated £45m in 2013, compared with £32m last year.
Separately, the group announced a fundraising worth £112m via a placing and open offer of 58.6m new shares. The issue price of 191p represented a discount of 4 per cent to the share price prior to the announcement, but the shares nonetheless jumped, reflecting the expectation-beating results. The proceeds will be used to pay off £96m-worth of bond debt.
Broker N+1 Singer expects pre-tax profits of £13m in 2014, giving EPS of 14.7p.
SKYEPHARMA (SKP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 234p | MARKET VALUE: | £108m | |
| TOUCH: | 234-239p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 235p | LOW: 43p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 130 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | * | NET DEBT: | £84m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 55.9 | -0.9 | -6.0 | nil |
| 2010 | 58.1 | 6.5 | 26.3 | nil |
| 2011 | 55.2 | -1.0 | -6.7 | nil |
| 2012 | 49.9 | -10.4 | -14.9 | nil |
| 2013 | 62.6 | -1.0 | 1.8 | nil |
| % change | +25 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: na Payment: na *Negative shareholders' equity | ||||
