| Tue 16 Nov 2004, 16:14 | | Aspen chief enjoys 55% pay rise after good results |
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Aspen chief enjoys 55% pay rise after good results
November 16, 2004
By Vernon Wessels
Johannesburg - Aspen Pharmacare, Africa`s biggest maker of generic medicines, has increased chief executive Stephen Saad`s pay by 55 percent as annual profit rose and its share price surged by almost two-thirds.
In the year to June, Saad`s pay rose to R3.75 million, including a R1.36 million performance bonus, from R2.42 million a year ago, according to Aspen`s annual report.
Deputy chief executive Gus Attridge was given a 60 percent pay increase to R3.22 million, including a R1.22 million bonus, from R2.01 million a year ago. The company released the figures last week.
Aspen`s net income for the 12 months to June climbed to R355.6 million from R270.6 million the previous year as the company boosted sales by 16 percent.
Aspen`s share price gained 64 percent over the period, outpacing a 22 percent rise in the FTSE/JSE Africa all share index. Aspen increased its dividend 50 percent to 30c a share.
Aspen, which has rights to make copies of GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim`s anti-Aids drugs, is one of seven drug companies bidding for a three-year contract with the department of health to supply state hospitals with antiretrovirals.
The contract is expected to cover 150 000 lives in the first year, 300 000 lives in the second year and 600 000 lives in the third.
`We have not yet completed the tendering process and haven`t set a specific date on when it will be awarded,` Sibani Mngadi, the spokesperson for the health department, said in a telephone interview from Pretoria.
`We`re in the advanced stages of identifying which companies will get the tender.`
In July, Statistics SA estimated that 3.83 million South Africans were infected with HIV. The UN put the number at 5.3 million.
Aspen also expects to supply other African nations with the treatments under a plan by US President George W Bush and another backed by former president Bill Clinton.
Aspen`s 37 percent share of the private South African generics market would enable it to benefit from the government-led drive to encourage chemists to dispense generic drugs, Saad wrote in the annual report.
By the end of June, approximately 25 percent by value of all prescribed medicines in the private market were generics, an increase from 18 percent in June 2001, he added.
The company had a pipeline of generic medicines that would allow it to continue growing in South Africa while exporting more to Australia and the UK, Saad said.
`The Aspen product pipeline for South Africa should begin to realise its potential over the next two years, with registration of over 100 new dossiers anticipated for this period,` he said.
The company would hold its annual general meeting tomorrow, the report said.
Shares in Aspen, the only listed pharmaceutical maker, fell 10c to R15.65 yesterday.
