4th Feb 2016 07:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Thursday forecast a fall in revenue and its closely watched earnings per share for 2016, including dilutive effects from recent acquisitions, as it reported a rise in pretax profit for 2015.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceutical company said pretax profit rose to USD3.07 billion in 2015 from USD1.25 billion a year before, despite seeing revenue fall to USD24.71 billion from USD26.55 billion, with the improved profit mostly the result of lower cost of sales and of selling, general and administrative costs.
AstraZeneca reported core earnings per share for the year of USD4.26, flat on the previous year at actual exchange rates, although up 7% at constant currency.
The company is guiding for a low to mid single-digit percentage decline in total revenue at constant currency, and a low to mid single-digit percentage decline in core earnings per share, also at constant currency. This guidance assumes loss of exclusivity in the US on its biggest seller, anti-cholesterol statin Crestor, from May.
AstraZeneca declared a second interim dividend of USD1.90 per share, taking its total dividend for the year to USD2.80, maintained from the previous year.
AstraZeneca said it had seen six regulatory approvals during 2015, and expects this momentum to continue into 2016 as it expects six further regulatory submissions and around ten major data readouts.
"As we face the transitional period of patent expiry for Crestor in the US, we're confident that our strong execution on strategy, combined with the benefits of focused investments and new launches, keeps us on track to return to sustainable growth in line with our targets," said Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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