NEW STRATEGY
Debt-laden Ascendis Health plans to dispose of bioscience unit
Debt-laden Ascendis Health plans to sell its bioscience business, which accounts for 12% of group revenues, as part of a new strategy to focus solely on core operations. The bioscience unit, which makes pest-control products and plant-growth stimulants, contributed revenues of R933m in the year to June. Ascendis’s total revenues grew 21% to R7.7bn during the year while normalised headline earnings rose 14% to R738m. "Although biosciences has been performing well, we don’t see it as a part of our future so that’s why we see it as a logical next step to divest … once we find the right buyer for the right amount of money," new Ascendis CEO Thomas Thomsen said. Ascendis has already sold its sports nutrition business in SA for R54m and its direct-selling unit for R50m. Thomsen said the group was also in the "final stages" of concluding a deal to sell its Isando factory.
As part of its new strategy, the group plans to focus on four main verticals: pharmaceuticals, consumer health ca...
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