Johannesburg - South Africa's No.2 drugmaker, Adcock Ingram, flagged a first-half loss on Tuesday, citing costs related to a failed $1.2 billion takeover bid from Chile's CFR Pharmaceuticals.
Adcock said it likely to swing to a headline loss of as much as 24 cents per share in the six months to end-March compared with headline earnings of 188.1 cents a year earlier.
Headline EPS, the most widely watched profit gauge in South Africa, strips out certain one-off and non-trading items.
Shares in the company fell 1.4 percent to 61 rand by 10:01 SA time, lagging behind a slightly higher JSE All-Share index.
Adcock, which is also struggling with slowing sales, poor distribution and over-reliance on heavily regulated local market, will pay $15.6 million in costs related to a collapsed deal with CFR.
Santiago-based CFR dropped its offer for the drugmaker earlier this year, saying it could not win approval from Adcock shareholders after rival suitor Bidvest Group had raised it stake to more than a third.
Bidvest has since been pushing through changes at Adcock, with Bidvest chief executive Brian Joffe taking over as chairman and one of his veteran lieutenants, Kevin Wakeford, as chief executive.
“The recently reconstituted board of directors has approved substantive changes to the group's internal processes and structures,” Adcock said in statement.
Adcock also said it has changed its fiscal year-end to June from September. - Reuters