{"id":8650,"date":"2012-03-07T14:59:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T12:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/update-1-s-africas-aspen-lifts-h1-profit-asia-unit-flies\/"},"modified":"2012-03-07T14:59:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T12:59:12","slug":"update-1-s-africas-aspen-lifts-h1-profit-asia-unit-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-s-africas-aspen-lifts-h1-profit-asia-unit-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-S.Africa’s Aspen lifts H1 profit, Asia unit flies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* Diluted normalised headline EPS up 22 pct<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Sales up 31 pct<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* To buy remaining shares in east African unit<\/p>\n

(Adds details, shares)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, March 7 (Reuters) – Aspen Pharmacare
\n, the southern hemisphere’s biggest generic drugs maker,
\nbooked a 22 percent rise in first-half profit on Wednesday as
\nstrong demand in its Asia-Pacific unit offset higher funding
\ncosts on its debt.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aspen, 19 percent owned by Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline
\n, said diluted normalised headline earnings per share
\ntotalled 308.1 cents in the six months to end-December, compared
\nwith 253.3 cents a year earlier.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aspen is one of the companies most likely to benefit as some
\nof best-selling name-brand drugs worth more than $100 billion
\nlose patent protection over the next three years.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales increased 31 percent to 7.5 billion rand, with its
\noffshore business adding more to sales than its home market for
\nthe first time. Sales at its Asia Pacific unit were three times
\nmore than the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Durban-based Aspen completed the acquisition of the generic
\nbusiness of Australia’s Sigma Pharmaceuticals last
\nyear, boosting its presence in the region.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The company also said it had reached a agreement with the
\nminority shareholders of its east Africa-focused unit, Shelys,
\nto buy their 40 percent holding for $24 million.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Shares in Aspen, which are up more than 11 percent so far
\nthis year, were little changed at 107.49 rand by 1135 GMT,
\nlagging a 0.7 percent rise in the JSE Top-40 index.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* Diluted normalised headline EPS up 22 pct * Sales up 31 pct * To buy remaining shares in east African unit (Adds details, shares) JOHANNESBURG, March 7 (Reuters) – Aspen Pharmacare , the southern hemisphere’s biggest generic drugs maker, booked a 22 percent rise in first-half profit on Wednesday as strong demand in its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}