Shareholders celebrate after Aspen slashes debt
Shares in Africa’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer jump 11% despite sleepy results
Shares in Africa’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, closed 10.97% higher on Thursday, its biggest one-day gain in more than 19 years, as investors sighed in relief at news that it had slashed its debt and planned to cut more in the year ahead.
Aspen has seen its share price drop by more than a third this year after a series of setbacks deepened investor concern about its high debt levels, which stood at R53.5bn in December. The company was battered by, among other things, a delay in the sale of its infant milk business to French dairy company Lactalis and an £8m (R146m) fine it agreed to pay the UK’s National Health Service after admitting to anticompetitive behaviour. ..
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