SINGAPORE (Mar 1): Hyphens Pharma International has announced earnings of $0.8 million for the 4Q ended Dec 2018, rising 31.9% from $0.6 million in 4Q17 in the absence of one-off IPO expenses incurred from the year before.
Excluding the impact of these one-off expenses, the group’s earnings would have increased 33% to $1.2 million from $0.9 million a year ago.
This brings the group’s full-year earnings to $5.4 million, down 11.1% from its earnings of $6.1 million a year ago.
Revenue for 4Q grew 12.8% to $30 million from $26.6 million due to higher sales from the group’s specialty pharma principals segment, driven by rising demand for coronary stents and radiology products, and of Hyphens’ dermatological proprietary brand products.
Other losses, however, increased to $1.2 million from $0.2 million in 4Q17 due to the provision for inventories obsolescence coupled with an impairment loss on goodwill.
Marketing and distribution costs fell 4.2% to $5.6 million from $5.9 million a year ago on lower personnel costs due to lower commissions paid, as well as reduced advertising and promotion expenses.
Administrative expenses declined 8.7% to $2.6 million from $2.8 million previously in the absence of one-off IPO expenses incurred in 4Q17. Notwithstanding the one-off IPO impact, administrative expenses would have been marginally higher at $2.57 million as opposed to $2.53 million in 4Q17.
The group has proposed a final dividend of 0.55 cents per share for FY18.
“We will continue to expand to new countries while deepening our roots in existing markets. Furthermore, we are currently considering a few collaborations in the digital health business, which we are excited to share more about in the near future. In furtherance of our ambition, we are enhancing our manpower capital to drive business growth,” says Lim See Wah, executive chairman of Hyphens Pharma.
Shares in the group closed flat at 18 cents on Thursday.
