A year ago, animal health business Benchmark Holdings (BMK) had just joined London's junior market, raising £25m of new cash in the process. Fast-forward 12 months and the top line has grown by more than a quarter. That's mainly thanks to a 22 per cent increase in revenues from animal health - by far the company's biggest division - to which a full year of sales from Benchmark's core sea lice treatment Salmosan in Chile was the biggest contributor.
But soaring costs left adjusted cash profits down 11 per cent at £6.6m - and this figure doesn't even include £4.7m of research and development spending. Clearly, the company is in growth mode. Last year it added 17 products to its future product pipeline, bringing the total to 47, and increased the employee headcount by 40 per cent.
The group was also on the acquisition trail last year. It picked up several aquaculture vaccine assets from US competitor Zoetis for $3m (£2m) in February. Then, post period-end, it bought Norwegian group SalmoBreed and Icelandic outfit Stofnfiskur for close to £40m, thus creating a brand-new breeding and genetics division.
Analysts at Cenkos Securities expect pre-tax profits of £4.4m this year, giving EPS of 4.2p, up from £3.2m and 3.9p, respectively.
| BENCHMARK HOLDINGS (BMK) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 95p | MARKET VALUE: | £208m | |
| TOUCH: | 92-97p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 131p | LOW: 82p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NA | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 17p* | NET CASH: | £16.3m | |
| Year to 30 Sept | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 12.9 | 2.6 | na | na |
| 2012 | 18.5 | 3.6 | na | na |
| 2013 | 27.5 | 4.9 | 4.7 | nil |
| 2014 | 35.4 | -1.4 | -1.0 | nil |
| % change | +29 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: na Payment: na *Includes intangible assets of £7.8m, or 3.6p a share | ||||
