Strong Growth Expected from API

Australian Pharmaceutical Industries is expecting improved productivity to boost net profits to a 17% increase for the current fiscal year. This will be just below fiscal 1993-94's (ended June 30) 20% increase in net profits which were A$19.92 million ($14.7 million). Sales were A$595.5 million ($440.8 million), up 14.9%.

The company's managing director, Ron Rowland, has indicated that sales for the current fiscal year should rise to A$700 million, with net profits growing at around the same rate, according to local reports.

Mr Rowland claims that the company sells around 18,000 lines: "everything you see in a pharmacy we sell," he said. The company is owned by pharmacists and by staff, and Mr Rowland says that there are no plans to float API.