City round-up: AstraZeneca; Ultimate Products
AstraZeneca has increased its first-quarter revenues by 60%, driven by its acquisition of Alexion and growth “across the company”.
The pharmaceutical giant expects full-year revenues to increase “by a high teens percentage” and earnings per share to be up by “a mid-to-high twenties percentage”.
Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said 2022 has “started strongly” as total revenues for the period reached $11.4bn (£9.1bn).
He added: “Farxiga achieved $1bn revenue in the quarter and our Oncology medicines delivered Product Sales growth of 18%, despite COVID-19 continuing to impact cancer diagnosis and treatment.”
AstraZeneca has also today revealed plans to open a new R&D centre in Massachusetts in 2026.
The site will bring together approximately 1,500 R&D, commercial and corporate colleagues into a purpose-built space that will also be the new corporate headquarters for Alexion.
Soriot added: “The move will provide access to some of the most innovative partners in academia and biotech, offering opportunities to accelerate our growth and collaborate with like-minded organisations as we continue to push the boundaries of science to deliver advances for patients.”
The group employs around 4,700 people in the North West on sites at Macclesfield and Alderley Park in Cheshire and Speke on Merseyside.
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Simon Showman
Ultimate Products, the Oldham consumer goods group, announced “a strong performance in a challenging environment” today when it published interim results for the period to January 31, 2022.
Revenue rose 13.7% to £85.7m driven by both underlying growth and the acquisition of Salter, the UK’s oldest homewares brand.
Existing business, excluding the Salter acquisition, grew by 2.6% to £77.3m, despite the headwinds of COVID-19 and global shipping capacity constraints.
UK and European supermarket customers’ revenue was up 48.5% to £31.8m, accounting for 37.1% of group revenue, making it the largest customer channel, overtaking discounter customers.
International revenue was up 22.8% to £29m, with Germany continuing to perform particularly well, up 59%. There was strong growth in rest of world, with revenue up 174.4% to £2m.
Profit before tax grew by 36.4% to £9.8m, and a 36.1% increase in the interim dividend of 2.3p per share, has been recommended.
Chief executive, Simon Showman, said: “We are very pleased with these results, which once again demonstrate Ultimate Products’ resilience and adaptability when faced with significan headwinds.
“The Salter brand has been integrated seamlessly into our business and is performing well. In particular, we are seeing a continuing trend towards consumers buying products that are less energy intensive, such as air fryers as opposed to oil fryers, and mechanical scales rather than battery powered ones.
“Looking forward, we expect shipping to continue to normalise as availability and capacity improve.
“While the increased cost of living inevitably represents a challenging backdrop for any consumer-focused company, we believe that our relentless focus on high quality, value-led products means that we are well placed to successfully navigate our way through the current market conditions. We, therefore, remain confident in the future prospects for Ultimate Products.”
