diamonds & dogs
JAMIE CARR: Pound takes a pounding and Ascendis in good health
All of a sudden sterling is duelling with the Argentine peso for the crown of most limp-wristed currency of the year — and even the rand is flexing its biceps and blowing raspberries at the Bank of England
Ascendis Health a picture of good healthWhen a company finds itself in an economy that is moving forward with all the gusto of an elderly tortoise in thick mud, it has two choices. One is to start moaning — blaming government, the weather, the consumer, the alignment of the planets and the mysterious machinations of the Chinese — but never for a moment taking responsibility. The second is to say stuff this for a game of soldiers, this party’s dead so let’s stick on the pith helmet and the puttees and strike out for pastures new. This is precisely the strategy adopted by the stout burghers of Ascendis Health, who have sniffed the wind in SA, whipped out the cheque book and embarked on an international spending binge. First the company bought Remedica Holdings, which manufactures generic drugs in Cyprus, and Scitec International, the third-largest European sports nutrition business, for the sum total of a cheeky €430m. Then it dropped a further R375m to pick up the Southern African ve...
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