Aspen HY 2017 - locking down purchases

Aspen released numbers for their six months to end December this morning. This is a business that has transformed from being a small to major generics business, to now positioning themselves as a (in their words) "global, multinational organisation focused on therapeutic specialties." Anticoagulants (to treat thrombosis) and anesthetics, much of this is new business. This compliments their older businesses, infant nutritional (formula and the like) and lastly the High Potency & Cytotoxics division.

That division is a little more complicated, those therapies treats everything from thyroid conditions to Parkinson's disease, as well as female cancers and hormonal imbalances. And there you thought the business was just a generics company, how the last five years have changed most of that. First Baby formula, and then the European oncology therapy and now becoming a key global participant in hospital procedures and aftercare of patients. i.e. The therapies compliment one another, post operations (where you have to have anesthetic), you need anti coagulants in order to prevent clotting. There is a very *nice* graphic, The Aspen Timeline on their website.

The numbers. Let us take a quick look. Asia Pacific contributes 19 percent to group revenues, South Africa 23 percent and International (Europe, Latin America and North America) 58 percent. Group revenues clocked nearly 20 billion Rand for the first half of the year, up 13 percent from the prior comparable half year. Normalised HEPS increased 6 percent to 692 cents. The dividend has grown quite strongly, still, expect the company to yield less than two percent. One doesn't own the stock for the dividend, you own it for growth. That is why the share price has been more than a little disappointing over the last 18 months, they have been bedding down a number of transactions.

The group has operations in 70 different countries, there are multiple different currency fluctuations that impact on the company earnings. Stephen Saad suggested that they were now looking to report with constant currencies, an international practice. That should make for less volatility. The company thinks that there are many opportunities in emerging markets, as well as making Japan and China big parts of their business. The share price has taken another leg up after having initially traded lower. There are loads of moving parts, and many different "things" going on.