PGF posts 5.8% sales growth in 2009, expects double-digit increase in 2010

2010-03-03

Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna (PGF) reported a 12.9% y-o-y jump in consolidated sales revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009, to nearly PLN 1.38bn (€348m). Net profit climbed 18% y-o-y to PLN 28.8m (€7.3m).
As a result, cumulative sales for the fiscal year ended 31 December amounted to an all-time high of PLN 5.39bn (€1.36bn) after consolidated adjustments, which represented an increase of 5.8% compared with 2008, preliminary unaudited figures show. Net profit surged by 51.3% to PLN 67.8m (€17.3m). In terms of segments, revenues from wholesaling operations exceeded PLN 4.5bn (€1.1bn) in 2009, while those from drug retailing were worth nearly 1.5bn (€378m).
In its quarterly report PGF noted that the group regained much of the lost ground in the wholesale market in Q4, after a temporary drop that followed a decision in late 2008 to exit unprofitable products. As a result, both drug retailing and wholesaling showed positive sales growth in the final quarter. Furthermore, the company reduced its debt load by more than PLN 100m (€25.2m) over 2009. As a consequence, the gross sales margin for the year improved by 0.6 p.p. to 12.8% while the net profit margin rose by 0.3 p.p. to 1.2%.
In 2010, PGF forecasts that its revenues will hit PLN 6bn (€1.5bn), which would represent an increase of 11.3%. The company thus expects to significantly outperform the pharma market as a whole, which it assumes will grow by 6-7% this year. PGF also aims to buy out minority shareholders in its Lithuanian companies and in Aptekarz. Even so, total debt is to be kept at or below PLN 500m (€126m).