Helen, the world’s largest standalone consumer health business with brands such as Sensodyne toothpaste and Advil painkiller, reported its first full-year results on Thursday that analysts said were in line with expectations.
Shares of London-listed Helan, which was created last July when British drugmaker GSK spun off its consumer health business in the biggest listing in Europe for more than a decade, tumbled nearly 3 in early trading after earnings % fallen.
Halen has made a strong start to 2023, and its full-year revenue growth forecast of 4% to 6% was in line or just ahead of consensus estimates, analysts said Thursday.
Barclays analyst Ian Simpson wrote in a note that momentum from the fourth quarter of 2022 has continued into the first quarter of 2023, despite “tougher comps” with pain and respiratory growth.
He said he expects growth in the first quarter to be largely price driven given the macroeconomic landscape.
Analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note that margin, financing and tax guidance for 2023 is likely to lead to a decline in the per-share consensus.
volatile atmosphere
Chief executive Brian McNamara said Helen had navigated a highly volatile environment.
Like other sectors in the consumer health sector, Ukraine has faced sharp cost increases across businesses, including raw materials, transportation and energy, and COVID-19 disruptions linked to the war.
Rivals with consumer health operations such as Bayer and Reckitt have charged higher prices to partially offset a wider decline in sales volumes.
McNamara said, “Our organic (full-year) revenue growth … was well balanced between volume and value, with two-thirds of the business being driven or accounted for.”
Haleon, which is made up of assets previously owned by GSK and pfizer Reported organic revenue growth of 9% last year, just ahead of the 8-8.5% growth predicted for 2022.
The company said Halen’s respiratory health unit saw organic growth of 32.6% to £1.6 billion in 2022, with fourth-quarter sales in North America and Europe significantly higher than 2019 levels, helped by a strong cold and flu season .
Respiratory viruses have returned with a vengeance to the Northern Hemisphere in the first winter free of COVID-19 restrictions since the start of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Helan reaffirmed its medium-term guidance, saying it expected to incur £150 million in restructuring costs in 2023 and 2024 to generate savings of around £300 million over the next three years.
By December, Helen had reduced debt to around £9.9 billion from around £10.7 billion three months earlier.
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification.
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