Alliance Pharma H1 profit doubles after acquisition

In the six months to the end of June, pre-tax profit surged 113% to £11.7m on revenue of £46.4m, up 104% from the first half of last year. The company said the original Alliance products performed strongly in the first half and the ex-Sinclair products made an immediate contribution to its results, in line with expectations.

Basic earnings per share rose to 2.04p from 1.65p and the interim dividend was lifted by 10% to 0.403p per share.

Chairman Andrew Smith said: “Alliance Pharma is a transformed business with sales and profits in the first half of 2016 having doubled from those of 2015. We are already seeing opportunities to exploit our expanded international capabilities.

“We were delighted to announce yesterday the signing of an EU licensing and distribution agreement for Diclectin with Duchesnay Inc., which provides the opportunity to launch this product in a further nine EU territories. This agreement highlights the potential of our strengthened European base."

The integration of the Sinclar Healthcare Products business, which was bought in December 2015, has brought 27 new products, increasing Alliance’s portfolio to some 90 products and extended its reach from around 40 countries to over 100.

Alliance said the integration of Sinclair was advancing well. It has maintained the flow of the business and will be independent from Sinclair in terms of the cash generating activities in the fourth quarter of this year.

At 0843 BST, the shares were down 0.5% to 50.75p.