Ascendis snaps up European pharmaceutical companies
Pharmaceuticals group will pay cash for Cyprus-based NHP Natural Health Pharma and Romania’s Sunwave Pharma
Pharmaceuticals group Ascendis Health announced its latest pair of acquisitions along with its interim results on Wednesday morning. Ascendis will pay up to €49.1m for Cyprus-based NHP Natural Health Pharma and €16.35m for Romania’s Sunwave Pharma. These acquisitions follow Ascendis’s R375m deal to buy Cipla Vet and Cipla Agrimed announced on Monday. While these new acquisitions will be paid in cash, past share-based acquisitions, including Remedica and Scitec, led to the group’s shares in issue growing 53% to 414-million at the end of 2016 from 270-million at the end of 2015. This dilution caused Ascendis’s headline earnings per share (HEPS) to decline 15% to 41.4c, although its aftertax profit rose 35% to R199m. Ascendis raised its interim dividend by 16% to 11c from 9.5c in the matching period.
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