TIDMUDG
RNS Number : 1585W
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Co.
07 February 2017
UDG HEALTHCARE PLC
FIRST QUARTER TRADING UPDATE
Good start to the year and full year guidance issued
7 February 2017:
UDG Healthcare plc ("the Group"), a leading international
provider of healthcare services, issues the following trading
update covering the period from 1 October to 31 December 2016. The
company will hold its Annual General Meeting in Dublin at 12.00pm
today.
Quarter to 31 December 2016
Group
The Group has made a good start to the financial year with
operating profits for the quarter to 31 December 2016 well ahead of
the same quarter last year. This performance has been driven by
continued good underlying growth and the impact of acquisitions. As
a result of the fall in the value of Sterling, reported profit
growth was moderated by the translation of our Sterling profits
into US Dollars.
Ashfield
Trading is well ahead of the same quarter last year, with good
underlying growth supplemented by acquisitions. STEM was acquired
in October 2016 and has performed in line with expectations.
Within the Ashfield Commercial & Clinical business,
operating profit growth was strongest in the US, as the business
ramps up activity on contract wins from 2016. The Ashfield
communications business continues to perform well with underlying
profit ahead of the same quarter last year.
Sharp
Divisional operating profits during the quarter were moderately
ahead of a strong comparable quarter last year.
The Sharp US commercial packaging business continues to increase
activity levels within its recently expanded facility in Allentown,
Pennsylvania. The business also continues to increase its
engagement with clients in preparation for the serialisation of
prescription products from November 2017. Both factors are expected
to have a more material benefit on performance in the second half
of the year.
Sharp Europe remains focused on converting its improved business
development pipeline into new business activity. This pipeline is
mainly in the biotech focused Belgian facility.
Aquilant
Aquilant's underlying operating profits were in line with the
same quarter last year.
Board Appointment
The Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Myles
Lee as a non-executive director of the Company with effect from 1
April 2017. Mr. Lee was Group Chief Executive of CRH plc, a FTSE100
and Fortune 500 company, prior to retiring in December 2013.
Group Outlook & Development
With effect from 1 October 2016, the Group now reports its
financial results in US Dollars.
Based on the Group's good trading performance during the first
quarter of the financial year, the Group expects constant currency
adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS)(1) for the year to 30
September 2017 to be between 13% and 16% ahead of last year's
continuing Group EPS of US$ 31.8c (Euro: 28.6c).
The average FY16 exchange rates were US$1 = GBP0.704 and
EUR0.90. Based on the current prevailing exchange rates, the Group
is likely to face a foreign exchange headwind on the translation of
Sterling profits in FY17.
The Group remains in a net cash position, leaving the business
well positioned to continue its corporate development activities,
which should serve to complement its continued underlying profit
growth.
(1) Before the amortisation of acquired intangible assets,
transaction costs and exceptional items
Date for Interim Results
The Group will issue its interim results for the six months to
31 March 2017 on Tuesday 23 May 2017.
Conference Call
UDG Healthcare plc will host a conference call for investors and
analysts at 9.00am (GMT) today, Tuesday 7 February 2017 to discuss
this statement. The dial-in details are as follows:
Standard International Access: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666
UK Toll Free 0808 109 0700
Ireland +353 (0) 1 436 0959
Password UDG Healthcare
A playback facility will be available for seven days on +44 (0)
20 8196 1998. The access code for the replay will be 4565150#.
Forward Looking Statements
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements,
beliefs or opinions, including statements with respect to the
Company's business, financial condition and results of operations.
By their nature these statements involve risk and uncertainty
because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may
or may not occur in the future. These statements reflect the
reasonable beliefs and expectations of the Company, are made in
good faith and are based on the information available to the
Company at the date of this announcement. However, a number of
factors, including known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, which are in some cases beyond the Company's control,
could cause actual results and developments to differ materially
from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements.
For reference:
Investors and Analysts:
Alan Ralph Keith Byrne
CFO Head of Investor Relations, Strategy & Corporate
Communications
UDG Healthcare plc UDG Healthcare plc
Tel: +353-1-468-9000 Tel: + 353-1-468-9000
Media:
Lisa Kavanagh / Jack Hickey
Powerscourt
Tel: +44-207-250-1446
About UDG Healthcare plc:
UDG Healthcare plc (LON: UDG) is a leading international partner
of choice delivering commercial, clinical, communications and
packaging services to the healthcare industry, employing almost
8,000 people with operations in 23 countries and delivering
services in over 50 countries.
UDG Healthcare plc operates across three divisions: Ashfield,
Sharp and Aquilant.
Ashfield is a global leader in commercialisation services for
the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, operating across two
broad areas of activity: commercial & clinical services, and
communications services. It focuses on supporting healthcare
professionals and patients at all stages of the product life cycle.
The division provides field and contact centre sales teams,
healthcare communications, patient support, audit, advisory,
medical information and event management services to over 300
healthcare companies.
Sharp is a global leader in contract commercial packaging and
clinical trial packaging services for the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industries, operating from state of the art
facilities across the US and Europe. Sharp is also a world leader
in 'Track and Trace' serialisation services, which will require all
prescription drugs to have a unique serial code for authentication
and traceability.
Aquilant is a leading provider of outsourced sales, marketing,
distribution and engineering services to the medical and scientific
sectors in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a
constituent of the FTSE 250.
For more information please go to: www.udghealthcare.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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