Stronger rand is bitter medicine for Aspen Pharmacare
The group now earns more than three-quarters of its income from outside SA
Aspen Pharmacare, which has grown into a multinational whose traditional home market contributes less than a quarter of its revenue, suffered from the stronger rand over the six months to end-December. The pharmacy group reported a 15% decline in aftertax profit to R2.8bn although its revenue grew 13% to R19.8bn, its interim results released on Thursday morning said. Aspen said that following the cancellation of its alliance with UK pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in sub-Saharan Africa outside of SA, it had combined neighbouring countries with SA in the geographical breakdown it provides in its results statement. There was a 4% decline in revenue to R4.5bn in this region. Its domestic sales suffered from a month-long strike at its Port Elizabeth and East London manufacturing sites in August. "The building of a second sterile facility in Port Elizabeth is under way, creating new opportunities to bring additional production to this site," the company said in its results sta...
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