Aspen Pharmacare: Shares plunge on weaker trading

Published Jun 30, 2014

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Aspen Pharmacare, Africa’s largest generic drugs maker, fell the most in more than five years in Johannesburg after management told analysts on a call that second-half trading was weaker, according to Avior Research. The shares declined 6.2 percent on Friday, the most since April 2009, to R288, paring the gain this year to 7.2 percent and valuing the company at R131.4 billion. “The company guided for a softer second half in South Africa because of government tender volumes that were lower than anticipated,” said Mathew Menezes, an analyst at Avior. Aspen also reported a “disappointing second half in South America because of problems with the supply chain”. Attempts to get comment from Aspen were not successful. Menezes said he considered the setbacks to be “temporary” and that the company’s long-term prospects were good. – Bloomberg

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