Alliance Pharma, the speciality pharmaceutical company, posts pre-tax profit of £5.4m for the six months to the end of June.
Alliance Pharma says this was down from £6.8m a year ago when its cyclical toxicology product was reaching the peak of its sales cycle.
It says that while, as expected, sales of this product were much lower in the first half of 2014, the impact was largely offset by robust growth of some £3m in the rest of the portfolio.
As a result, turnover reduced only slightly to £22.5m (H1 2013: 22.8m) including share of joint ventures.
Excluding joint ventures, revenue totalled £21.4m (H1 2013: 22.8m); in line with IFRS 11. The group says this is the basis on which it will be reporting group turnover from 2014 onwards. Chairman Andrew Smith said: “”Alliance made a solid start to 2014 with revenue and profits in line with expectations and good underlying revenue growth of 9.3%. We see growth potential from our Hydromol range, from other products in our portfolio including Ashton & Parsons Infants’ Powders, and from potential acquisitions. With some £22m of our acquisition bank facility still undrawn we have ample headroom for deals and are working hard on an attractive pipeline of opportunities.
“Current trading is in line with management forecasts and we expect full year results to be in line with market expectations.”
