Animal health group says it has ‘flexibility and firepower’ for further growth

Animal health business, Animalcare Group, says it has achieved a positive first half performance following strong revenue growth in its operations and improved levels of cash conversion.

In its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2024, the York-headquartered company records revenues from continuing operations of £36.9m (H1 2023: £35.2m), up 5%, and pre-tax profits of £4.8m (H1 2023: £4.7m).

Underlying EBITDA grew by 2.5% to £6.6m (H1 2023: £6.5m).

Chief executive officer, Jenny Winter, said: “We delivered a positive performance for the first six months of 2024 characterised by increased revenues and profits and improved cash conversion.

“Production Animals and Equine made notable contributions to sales, underlining the importance of these segments of our markets to our overall business while our Plaqtiv+ dental range and Daxocox osteoarthritis treatment returned strong double-digit revenue growth for Companion Animals.

“The divestment of Identicare and disposal of our minority stake in STEM Animal Health Inc in the first half have had a transformative effect on our balance sheet yielding cash of £27.7m net of expenses.

“The resultant positive cash position equips the group with significantly increased flexibility and firepower as we maintain our pursuit of organic and inorganic investment opportunities to drive sustainable growth in line with our long-term strategy.”

The firm says it is confident full year results will be in line with market expectations of £74.5m for revenue and £11.7m underlying EBITDA.

Animalcare adds it is developing its pipeline of products and is continuing a research collaboration with Orthros Medical focused on novel VHH antibody technology.

The business explains its development pipeline is spread across novel, generic and lifecycle management projects in multiple animal species.