Bitter pill to swallow as drugs firm loses £335m
Investors found Hikma
Pharmaceuticals’ results a bitter pill to swallow after it failed to say whether its key asthma drug will be sold in the Us following a delay earlier this year.
the Ftse 250 firm and its partner vectura were savaged in May after failing to gain Us regulatory approval for a generic version of rival GlaxosmithKline’s asthma drug Advair.
Despite ‘constructive’ talks with the Us regulator, the firm did not say whether the drug is slated for a Us release any time soon.
As a result, Hikma downgraded full-year revenue estimates for its generics arm to £481.2m from £520m in May – itself a downgrade from a £621m forecast in April.
this led the firm to alter full-year revenues estimates across the whole company to around £1.6bn, marginally down from predictions in May. shares fell 10.5pc, or 139p, to 1190p, a three-year low, wiping £335m off Hikma’s value.
star fund manager neil Woodford had a bad day as Allied
Minds, the invention business in which he is the biggest shareholder, reported widening losses over the first half of the year.
the firm lost £45.2m in the six months, compared to a loss of £40.5m over the same period last year. over the first half, Allied Minds invested £17.4m in its portfolio, which includes Hawkeye 360 (which tracks illegal shipping activities) and cyber security firm Percipient networks.
But the company, which funds and builds firms out of ideas formed in university labs, has suffered heavily since it cut funding for seven subsidiaries in April, and shares dipped 0.6pc, or 1p, to 160p. Woodford suffered a further blow when intellectual property firm IP Group announced that Chinese investor Galaxy World Group had been forced to withdraw an investment of £23.1m.
Galaxy failed to get the necessary approvals for the investment following a tightening by the Chinese authorities on money leaving the country. shares were down 1.6pc, or 2.2p, to 138.7p.
the FTSE 100 ended its strong run so far this week with a day in the red as banking stocks stumbled on the prospect of slower Us interest rate hikes. this followed a cautious set of minutes from the Federal reserve. the index fell 0.6pc, or 45.16, to 7387.87. Car insurance firm Admiral
Group continued to decline after it was revealed that a charity on which chief executive David stevens sits as a trustee, sold £4.6m worth of shares.
Grant-making charity the Waterloo Foundation sold 225,000 shares at 2032p each on Wednesday. this was the same day Admiral announced that profits were held back by a rise in personal injury payments in the first half, sending shares down 6pc. shares fell 2.3pc, or 47p, to 2000p.
Broker Liberum was wowed by a recent demonstration from price comparison group ZPG. It claimed the group has the potential to keep consumers throughout the entire process of finding, moving, and managing a new home.
‘this would transform ZPG from being a cost centre to a profit generator for estate agents which could lead to a shift in the way estate agents think about ZPG,’ said Liberum. shares rose 0.6pc, or 2.2p, to 355p.
With Oxford Biomedica’s shares soaring 117pc this year on the back of its lucrative involvement in an upcoming leukaemia drug, slightly middling results were met with little enthusiasm.
the oxford University spin-off lost £2.2m over the first half of the year and shares slipped 1.1pc, or 0.1p, to 8.82p.