Enlarged Animalcare resumes trading on AIM

Shares in Animalcare resumed trading on AIM on Thursday morning, after the successful acquisition of Ecuphar and the placing of 9,340,168 shares to raise £32.7m.

The company said the placing consisted of 8,571,428 new placing shares placed by the company, and 768,740 sale shares sold by the selling shareholders at the placing price of 350p.

Its board said it believed that Animalcare and Ecuphar were “highly complementary” businesses, in particular with regard to their geographic markets, product portfolios and new product development pipelines.

“The acquisition will provide enhanced scale and capabilities,” the board’s statement read.

“As such, the board considers the acquisition to provide an opportunity to create a specialist pan-European animal health company that gives the enlarged group leadership in its chosen niches that is supported by attractive and complementary market drivers.”

The board said it believed that the enlarged group would represent a “growing, highly cash generative and dividend paying” animal health company with a “solid pipeline” of new veterinary pharmaceutical products.

“The board believes that, taking into account the business and prospects of the enlarged group, the acquisition will be enhancing to the board's expectations of underlying earnings for the existing group in the first full financial year of ownership.”