Aspen Pharmacare, valued at just under R50bn on the JSE, said it expects to report a loss of R4bn for its 2025 financial year, as restructuring costs in China and impairments totalling more than R4bin affect the company’s earnings.
Daily Investor reports that as Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, it owns and operates facilities in Gqeberha and France, where it manufactures finished dose products for third parties.
However, last week it announced that it anticipates a significant drop in earnings for the year ended 30 June 2025, after high restructuring costs in China.
It expects:
• Normalised headline earnings per share down between 27% and 32%
• Headline earnings per share (HEPS) down between 40% and 45%
• Earnings per share (EPS) down between 123% and 128%, swinging to a loss per share
The restructure of Aspen China and its integration with the acquired Sandoz business were completed in the 2025 financial year at a cost of around R500m, along with one-off inventory rationalisation and write-offs.
However, the company said the restructured China business, supported by higher EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) margins, is now well positioned to contribute positively to earnings in 2026.
Aspen added that EPS for the year were also negatively impacted by higher intangible asset impairments, mainly due to an ongoing contract dispute related to a manufacturing and technology agreement with a contract manufacturing customer for mRNA products.
It warned that the impact could include a R2bn EBITDA hit and an impairment of R770m.
The normalised EBITDA from its manufacturing business for 2025 is expected to be around 40% of that reported in 2024, it added.
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