Alliance Pharma revenues increase as product portfolio grows

Healthcare group Alliance Pharma saw its revenues improve over the first half of its trading year with sustained growth across its product portfolio driven by the firm's continued focus on both international expansion and on higher growth, consumer healthcare products.

On what Alliance called a "see-through" basis, sales for the first half of 2019 were expected to improve by 29% year-on-year to £70.3m.

Excluding acquisitions, revenues increased by 10% on a constant currency basis and, based on trading in the year to date, the AIM-listed group was expecting revenue and underlying trading profits for the full year to be in line with expectations.

Alliance said underlying free cash flow in the first half of 2019 "was strong" at approximately £14.5m, up from the £10.1m reported a year earlier, leading to a reduction in net debt of approximately £11.7m to £74.1m.

As a result of the strong cash generation, Alliance's leverage reduced from 2.33 times EBITDA on 31 December to approximately 1.95 times EBITDA at the end of June and the company expected to de-lever further in the second half of the year.

Chief executive Peter Butterfield said: "We have seen continued momentum in our business during the first half of 2019, with sales up 29% compared with the previous year and growth coming largely from our consumer healthcare products, which now account for over half of our portfolio."

As of 1350 BST, Alliance shares had picked up 2.63% to 68.86p.