Economic conditions in its home market have impacted the Ireland-based packaging and distribution firm, but growth in US demand is offsetting the dip. New contract packaging deals are driving some of the US growth.
“United Drug has state-of-the-art facilities which do not face the risk of being shut down by the US Food and Drug Administration, as it recently happened to older plants owned by some pharma companies”, Stephan Gasteyger, equity analyst at Jefferies and Company, said in a note.
The company has “substantial financial flexibility”, Gasteyger said, and this could be used to make €200-300m acquisitions over the next 18 months.