Aspen Pharmacare Holdings reported a 28% year-over-year increase in normalized headline earnings per share to 802 South African cents for the fiscal year ended June 2026, up from 625 cents a year earlier. The company’s normalized EBITDA rose 14% to 7.7 billion rand in constant currency terms, while free cash flow surged to 3.8 billion rand from 166 million rand in FY25.
Group revenue remained broadly flat in constant currency terms, though commercial pharma revenue grew 5% in the same measure, or 7% excluding the impact of discontinued operations in China. Commercial pharma EBITDA increased 13% to 5.9 billion rand, with the EBITDA margin widening to 27.1% from 25.6%. Manufacturing revenue declined 10% following the loss of a 1 billion rand mRNA contract, though manufacturing EBITDA rose 21% to 828 million rand.
Gross profit increased 4% with the gross margin improving to 43% from 41.6%, while operating expenses fell 4% to 25% of revenue. Capital expenditure totaled 3 billion rand, down from 5 billion rand in the prior year. The company completed the divestment of its Asia-Pacific operations, generating gross proceeds of 28 billion rand at an EBITDA multiple of 11.5x. Aspen ended the year with a net cash position of 800 million rand and no debt.
The company authorized a 2 billion rand share buyback program, equivalent to about 3% of its issued shares. Shares rose 2.65% to 14,884 rand following the results, placing the stock roughly 64.2% above its 52-week low and 7.5% below its 52-week high.
For the fiscal year ending June 2027, Aspen guided normalized EBITDA to reach at least 9 billion rand, implying growth of more than 17% from FY26. Normalized earnings per share are expected to exceed 50% growth, while EBITDA from the sterile finished dose form business is projected to rise to 2.2 billion rand, up from the prior target of 1.7 billion rand. Commercial pharma is expected to deliver mid-single-digit growth in both revenue and EBITDA, while manufacturing revenue is forecast to expand by more than 50%.
Executives highlighted strong momentum in the GLP-1 business, with Mounjaro sales in South Africa exceeding 2 billion rand and a planned rollout of generic semaglutide in Canada, Brazil, Kenya and Nigeria. The company expects to resolve a Canadian API supply issue within three weeks. Additional pipeline milestones include WHO pre-qualification for pediatric vaccines expected later this year and FDA approval secured for triple-dose ARV manufacturing. A once-monthly oral HIV prevention tablet licensed from Merck is currently in Phase III trials.
