The group's first-half trading profit rose 2.7 per cent to£267 million on a pro-forma basis. Revenue was up 2.9 per cent to£7.04 billion. The results were in line with forecasts after a trading update from the company on September 28.
Alliance Boots chief executive Richard Baker said: 'This has been an encouraging start to life as Alliance Boots. The group has performed well in the first half. Our retail division traded strongly with the UK operations, our biggest single market, benefiting from continued growth in health care and the warm weather.'
He added: 'Our wholesale division continued to perform well, reflecting the strength of our geographically diverse portfolio of businesses. We have also experienced good early progress on work to achieve the promised cost synergies from the merger and are on track to deliver against our expectations for the full year.'
Investec analyst Mark Charnock said that the group's interim results were exactly in line with his top of range trading expectations. 'There is no change to forecasts expected, and management says it is on track to deliver the£100 million of synergies over the four-year time frame,' he said.
The group's shares, which have performed in-line with the FTSE 100 index since the July 31 merger closed at 819p on Monday, which values the business at£7.87 billion.
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