Strong December lifts Sopharma’s Q4 sales growth into positive territory

2012-01-09



Sopharma, the Bulgarian drug maker with a dual listing in Warsaw, announced a 38% year on year increase in sales revenues for the month of December 2011, helped by a recovery in export sales after several months of weaker performance. Domestic sales were up by 48% year on year during this period whereas export sales, which account for a bigger share of the total, increased by 29% year on year.
Preliminary figures for the fourth quarter of 2011 show sales up 0.41% over the same period of 2010 to nearly BGN 210m (€107m), including a 3.32% year on year rise in domestic sales and a 0.86% year on year decline in exports.
In a regulatory statement Sopharma said its sales growth in 2011 was weighed down by a combination of tougher economic environment and administrative obstacles, which disrupted its exports to Russia and other significant markets. However, by December some of these problems were resolved and the group achieved double-digit sales growth in the markets of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Balkans and Moldova, and single-digit growth in exports to Ukraine and the Baltic states. According to Sopharma, now that it has secured all the necessary documents and permits it should be able to achieve even faster growth in key export markets in the first months of 2012, thus making up for the weaker results in the latter part of 2011 and ensuring a good start to what is set to be an equally challenging year.