£134m acquisition opens up European export market
A bio-tech group which has merged with a European animal health company expects the £134m acquisition to boost exports and allow the company to focus on product development.
Animalcare Group completed a reverse takeover of Belgium-based Ecuphar in the summer, which has trebled the size of the business.
In the year to June, just before the Ecuphar deal was agreed, Animalcare’s underlying profits rose 12% to £3.6m. Revenues for the same period increased 8% to £15.9m.
York-based Animalcare also revealed six-month figures for the combined group, which showed underlying operating profit of £4.92m from total revenues of £45m.
Iain Menneer, chief operating officer for the Animalcare Group, said: “Animalcare was a very successful business in the UK and this merger helps us grow the exports for our business. The merger gives us scale and new product development opportunities within the entire group and allows us to cover some of the most important markets for our sector – France, Germany and the UK. Therefore, we will have the opportunity to cross sell products that Ecuphar produce already.
“Ecuphar has a very experienced product development team in Barcelona. We will add to those expertise in bringing these companies together.”
The merger gives the group capacity to sell more products – together currently they now have 50 licenced drugs, eight vaccines and care products. The number of patents they hold has increased from zero as the UK business to ten and the number of countries they will export to will jump from from one to seven.
Animalcare employs 65 people and the merger will take the total numbers employed by the group to around 200. The board are now going to focus on integrating the businesses but say the first months have been as expected.
Before the merger, profits were been driven by key pharmaceutical ranges (intravenous fluids, anaesthetics and analgesics) and revenue from eight newly launch products in the period.
Chris Brewster has been re-appointed to the Group’s Board as Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect. He said: “I am really pleased to have been appointed CFO of the group. There is lots to do but it’s going to be a good challenge. The big thing for us over the next 12-18 months is integration and aligning the synergies.”
Jan Boone, Chairman of Animalcare Group, said: “Since taking on the role of Chairman at the time of the Acquisition, the business continues to perform well. The reported results for Animalcare pre-acquisition provide a good reminder of the strength of the underlying business that, together with Ecuphar, has the ability to be a leader in the European animal health market.
“The pan-European business created represents a growing, cash generative and dividend paying company with a solid pipeline of new products. With the scale the Enlarged Group now enjoys and the opportunity for synergies creation and strong portfolio of new products, the Board reiterates its confidence in the Enlarged Group’s prospects for growth and expectations for earnings accretion in 2018 and beyond.”
