AGM Statement

Uniphar PLC

09 May 2024

 

AGM Statement

Dublin, London | 9 May 2024

Uniphar plc (the "Company" or "Uniphar") is holding its AGM today at 11am BST at the office of William Fry, LLP, 6th Floor, 2 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, D02 A342, Ireland.

At the AGM, Maurice Pratt, Chairman of Uniphar, will make the following statement:

"I am pleased to report that 2023 was another successful year for Uniphar. The Group achieved a significant milestone of doubling 2018 pro-forma EBITDA ahead of the timeframe committed to at the time of IPO. We also announced a new ambitious target of growing Group EBITDA to €200m over the medium-term. This will be achieved through a combination of strong organic growth complemented with acquisitions that meet our disciplined strategic and financial criteria.

We have also reorganised into three new divisions - Uniphar Supply Chain & Retail, Uniphar Medtech, and Uniphar Pharma - to better capitalise on growth opportunities and align with our customers and stakeholders.

Financial performance during 2023 was strong with organic gross profit growth of 5.6%, driven by growth across each of our three divisions. EBITDA increased to €116.0m, reflecting 17.7% growth, reported free cash flow conversion was strong at 78.5% and we maintained modest leverage at 1.6x.

We have commenced our multi-year strategic capital expenditure in an IT and ERP investment programme and this is progressing to plan. M&A remains a key component of our growth strategy and the Group completed the acquisitions of the McCauley Pharmacy Group and certain assets from Pivot Digital during the year.

I am pleased to report a good start to 2024, with performance in the first four months in line with the Board's expectations. Uniphar remains well positioned to deliver organic gross profit growth across each division in line with previous guidance and to deliver expectations for the full year.

Sustainability continues to form a key part of Uniphar's culture and business practices, and we made continued progress across all five of our sustainability pillars. The Group's MSCI rating was upgraded to "AAA" during 2023 and it maintained its CDP 'B' rating for a second consecutive year. We are also delighted to announce that last month the near-term science-based emissions reduction targets submitted by the Group to SBTi received formal validation.

Finally, I'd like to express my appreciation for the considerable effort and unwavering commitment from our Uniphar colleagues, management, and fellow Directors over the previous year. I would also like to thank our shareholders, the executive team, and all our global teams for their loyalty, diligence, and dedication during 2023."

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Contact details

Uniphar Group	Tel: [phone]
Allan Smylie, Head of Strategy and IR
Davy (Joint Corporate Broker, Nominated Advisor and Euronext Growth Listing Sponsor)	Tel: [phone]
Daragh O'Reilly Niall Gilchrist Ivan Murphy
RBC Capital Markets (Joint Corporate Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Jamil Miah Rupert Walford
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Joint Corporate Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Matt Blawat Ben Maddison Francis North
Q4 PR	Tel: [phone]
Iarla Mongey, Public Relations Advisor to Uniphar Group

About Uniphar plc 

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the Uniphar Group is an international diversified healthcare services business servicing the requirements of more than 200 multinational pharmaceutical and medical technology manufacturers across three divisions - Uniphar Pharma, Uniphar Medtech and Uniphar Supply Chain & Retail. The Group is active in Europe, North America, APAC and MENA and delivers to 160+ countries.

The Company's vision is to improve patient access to pharmaco-medical products and treatments by enhancing connectivity between manufacturers and healthcare stakeholders. Uniphar represents a strong combination of scale, growth, and profitability.

Uniphar Supply Chain & Retail

Uniphar Supply Chain & Retail is the leading pharmaceutical wholesaler in Ireland with a growing symbol group offering of retail pharmacies. The Group's strategy for Uniphar Supply Chain & Retail is to grow our wholesale market share, our symbol group network and our own brand, in-licenced and consumer products portfolio.

Uniphar Medtech

Uniphar Medtech is a leading Pan-European medical device distributor and solutions partner. The Group's strategy for Uniphar Medtech is to grow our service offering across Europe and expand our addressable market by serving new specialities and new manufacturers.

Uniphar Pharma

Uniphar Pharma operates a global business with high value services across the lifecycle of a pharmaceutical product. We enable pharma and biotech companies to bring innovative medicines to global markets and provide healthcare professionals with access to medicines they can't source through traditional channels. Our strategy is to build a leading platform to provide the specialist support and expertise needed to improve access to these medicines.

 

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