호주 멜버른에 본사를 둔 남반구 유일의 백신제조사인 CSL이 5억5천6백만 달러(6억1천7백40만 호주달러)의 순이익을 기록하여 지난 6개월에 비해 23%나 증가했다는 블룸버그 통신의 뉴스입니다.
CSL Profit Beats Estimates on Swine Flu Vaccine Sales
By Simeon Bennett
출처 : Bloomberg Last Updated: February 16, 2010 20:55 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aBr_Vw.iTG9E
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — CSL Ltd., the only influenza-vaccine maker in the Southern Hemisphere, posted first-half profit that climbed more than analysts expected, helped by sales of its swine flu shot. The shares rose the most in eight months.
Net income increased 23 percent to A$617.4 million ($556 million), or 106 cents a share, in the six months ended Dec. 31, from A$501.9 million, or 85 cents, a year earlier, Melbourne- based CSL said today. Analysts projected A$530 million, according to the median of five estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Brian McNamee said today that full- year net income would be “towards the upper end” of CSL’s forecast of between A$970 million and A$1.07 billion at current exchange rates. The company, also the world’s second-biggest maker of blood plasma products, said demand in emerging markets helped counter slower sales in the U.S., where hospitals decreased inventories during the recession.
“We’ve achieved broad-based growth in the first half in both products and geographies,” McNamee, 53, told reporters on a conference call. “We’re selling very well in Russia, Brazil. Mexico had a particularly strong year, the Middle East did very well for us.”
CSL rose 4 percent to A$33.55 as of 11:58 a.m. in Sydney trading, the most since June 9. The S&P/ASX Index of Australia’s 200 biggest companies by market value gained 1.9 percent.
Six-month sales climbed 5 percent from a year earlier to A$2.32 billion. CSL, which generates more than 85 percent of revenue in foreign currencies, said the Australian dollar’s strength against the U.S. dollar and euro wiped A$46 million from profit.
Stronger Aussie
The Aussie averaged 87.2 U.S. cents in the six months ended Dec. 31, appreciating from 78.1 U.S. cents a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Australian currency averaged 59.9 euro cents, compared with 55 euro cents.
The profit forecast for the 12 months ending June 30 is less than the A$1.15 billion that CSL reported last year. Based on last year’s exchange rates, net income would probably be between A$1.16 and A$1.26 billion, CSL said.
CSL earned A$160 million in sales of its vaccine for swine flu, or H1N1, during the six months on orders from governments in the U.S., Australia, Germany, Canada and Singapore. The U.S. cut its order by more than half in December after demand for the shots waned.
The cancellation had no impact on first-half profit, McNamee said. “H1N1 has delivered for the company really what we were forecasting it to deliver when we entered into these contracts,” he said.
Blood Products
CSL trails Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter International Inc. in the global market for treatments derived from blood plasma, the watery liquid in which blood cells are suspended. Those products are used for immune deficiencies, hemophilia, healing wounds and treating burns.
Sales at CSL’s Behring plasma unit were unchanged at A$1.8 billion, and rose 10 percent based on last-year’s exchange rates. Revenue from immunoglobulins, immune-boosting treatments that are CSL’s best-selling products, increased 9.5 percent to $494 million.
Demand for Vivaglobin, which patients can inject themselves, “attracted significant patient growth,” CSL said in a statement.
“The plasma market continues to deliver robust growth, as expected, and this is delivering strong earnings growth,” Alex Smith, a health-care analyst at Citigroup Inc. in Sydney, wrote in a note to clients today.
Gardasil Sales
Sales from the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil fell 79 percent to A$18 million as programs to inoculate women in Australia drew to a close. CSL sells Gardasil in Australia and licenses it to Merck & Co. overseas.
CSL scrapped a $3.1 billion bid for Talecris Therapeutics Holdings Corp. last year after U.S. antitrust regulators blocked the purchase. The company said today it has completed about 86 percent of a planned stock buyback as it returns funds raised for the takeover attempt to investors.
McNamee said acquisitions in the next 12 months are possible as CSL continues to look at opportunities to buy smaller companies with products to complement its portfolio. CSL had A$956 million in cash as of Dec. 31.
“We certainly have the financial resources to do small bolt-on acquisitions, but we really haven’t found anything that makes a lot of sense to us currently,” McNamee said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net
