Drug maker Fidson seeks fresh capital

Fidson Healthcare is putting up equity financing for consideration at its annual meeting of shareholders this month, hoping to secure a key approval for an additional capital raise of N30 billion.

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The share sale for Fidson, whose stock has yielded 183 per cent this year, may take the mould of public offering, strategic allotment, rights issue or private placement, at the discretion of directors, a regulatory note by the company on Thursday stated.

“In the event of a rights issue by the company, the directors be and are hereby authorised to allot any shares not taken up by existing shareholders within the period stipulated under the Rights Issue to other interested shareholders of the company on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the directors,” it added.

Opportunities to scale through Asian partnerships continue to create a rich recipe for growth for the company, whose collaboration with Serum Institute of India Pvt Limited led to a breakthrough that produced Nigeria’s first malaria vaccine in Nigeria in 2023.

The drug, targeting the prevention of clinical malaria in kids in the category of 5 to 36 months, has been touted by the firm as a potential answer to malaria-induced mortality in tropical Africa.

Last September, Fidson closed a joint venture deal with China-Africa Development Fund, Jiangsu Aidea Pharma and Nanjing PharmaBlock to establish a pharmaceutical plant, catering for the needs of 1.9 million HIV patients in Nigeria.

Lagos’ Lekki Free Trade Zone is hosting the facility and, given its strategic significance to cross-border trade, could serve as a corridor to link other pharmaceutical markets in West Africa with medical supplies and other services.

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At the annual general meeting, the company expects shareholders to endorse its cash distribution plan, which will hand out N2.3 billion in total dividends to them at N1 per share for the financial year 2024.

Profit for the first quarter of this year more than tripled to N3.3 billion, thanks to a boom in prescription medicine, which contributed more than three-fifths of sales. Assets totalled N80.5 billion at the end of March, compared to N73.5 billion last December.