AFT Pharmaceuticals (NZX; AFT, ASX; AFP) today announces
it has concluded an agreement with the Bank of New Zealand
(BNZ) to refinance its current six-year CRG loan facility
maturing on 31 March 2020. This follows the term sheet
concluded with the BNZ which was noted by AFT’s market
announcement on 26 February 2020.
AFT Pharmaceuticals
Managing Director Dr Hartley Atkinson said he was delighted
to complete the refinancing, which gives the company funding
certainty and is expected to result in finance cost savings
of $2 million per year over the facility’s three-year
term.
AFT meanwhile notes it expects revenue for the
year to 31 March 2020 (including product sales, royalty
income and licensing fees) to rise to more than $100 million
from $85.1 million in the same period a year ago.
As
noted on 10 March 2020, the company continues to see strong
demand for a number of its products following the Covid-19
outbreak. Products in high demand include cold and influenza
medicines, hospital antibiotics and Vitamin C
Liposachets®.
It is still too early to be precise on
the expected earnings outcome for the 2020 financial year.
However, the company reiterates its guidance that it expects
operating earnings to be the “mid to upper end” of the
guidance range of $18.8 million to $21.8million.
Dr
Atkinson said: “Demand for our cold and flu medicines
remains strong. Our Australasian Pharmacy business has seen
strong sales of our Maxigesic® pain relief medicine,
Maxiclear®, which provides relief from cold and flu
symptoms, and supplements such as our Liposachet® Vitamin C
product. Indeed, Liposachet® sales in New Zealand in March
(to date) are now more than 21 times the sales in all of
March 2019, and three times the sales achieved by the
product in the prior financial year.
“Our
Australasian hospital business continues to see strong
demand for our injectable antibiotics such as Piptaz-AFT,
Ceftriaxone-AFT and Cefazolin-AFT which are used to treat
secondary antibacterial infections, a potential complication
of Covid-19 infections.
“AFT continues to monitor
developments related to the Covid-19 pandemic closely. We
took a number of steps early in the year to prepare for the
outbreak such as ordering additional quantities of stock
above our standard 3-month safety stock
levels.
“Most of our supplies are normally delivered
by sea freight which has been less effected by the
significant reduction in airfreight capacity, we have seen
as the outbreak has progressed. While we cannot rule out
supply disruptions, at present we are confident we can
continue to deliver the products our customers
need.
“Covid-19 represents a very real and
distressing health threat to millions of people around the
world. AFT’s mission in Australasia is to deliver our
products to pharmacies and hospitals to help people’s
health, especially in these difficult times. We are working
very hard to ensure we continue to deliver on this
goal.”
