Aspen spent the year taking costs out rather than putting sales on. Revenue from the businesses it is keeping came in at R34.9 billion, flat on last year, while the operating earnings it measures itself by rose 14% once currency swings are stripped out. The company's own explanation is efficiency work, not selling more.
The balance sheet changed more than the income statement. Aspen sold its Asia-Pacific business for R28 billion and booked a R2.4 billion profit on the sale. It ended the year holding about R0.8 billion more cash than debt.
Getting there cost real money. Restructuring across the group came to R2.3 billion, and writedowns on brand values took another R2.3 billion off the reported line without any cash leaving the business. Between them they pulled headline earnings per share for the whole group down 20%, even as the continuing business went the other way.
The injection carrying the biggest division
Commercial Pharmaceuticals, Aspen's largest segment, grew revenue 5% at constant rates, led by demand for Mounjaro. Mounjaro is the weight-loss and diabetes injection Aspen promotes and distributes in South Africa for Eli Lilly. Its sales have reached about R1.5 billion, and chief executive Stephen Saad told Bloomberg the drug was responsible for about 40% of the growth in the country's private pharmaceutical market over the past year.
“We definitely believe it's got potential to be our biggest product,” Saad said. Aspen has filed to sell Mounjaro in Nigeria and Kenya and hopes for approvals during the coming financial year, with French-speaking West Africa, Ethiopia and Tanzania after that.
The cheaper copy, and the ingredient it depends on
The bigger bet is the copy. Aspen has Health Canada approval for a generic injectable semaglutide, the ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, and Saad told Business Day it is awaiting registration in about 20 countries including Brazil and South Africa. He expects generic versions globally to cost at least half what branded ones do.
Manufacturing is where next year's growth is meant to come from. The reshaped sterile plants in France and South Africa lifted that division's earnings 21%, to R828 million, while its revenue fell. Aspen is targeting at least R9 billion of group operating earnings in the coming year.
Investors marked the year down on the day. The share closed 7.35% lower at R145.
What Aspen does not control is the ingredient supply. It expects to hear in September whether Dr Reddy's has resolved the problems holding up its semaglutide launch.
