Sinclair IS Pharma (SPH.L, AIM All Share, Market capitalisation £149m, 30p and 2.0% of JIC Portfolio) I have this afternoon bought a 2% holding in Sinclair IS Pharma. It is a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on aesthetic dermatology, in other words making its customers look younger and more beautiful. It has a direct sales and marketing presence in the top five European markets and a rapidly growing International division concentrated on the emerging markets through long term multi-product, multi-country, sales, marketing and distribution deals with key strategic partners. The chief executive is Chris Spooner, a former City pharmaceuticals analyst, who since his appointment in December 2009 has driven the business forward with a number of acquisitions including the merger in 2011 with IS Pharma. The latest, announced last month, was the acquisition of Silhouette. The total consideration was £70.1m with £14.4m up front and further payments of £55.7m relating to milestones and royalty buyback. The acquisition is expected to be slightly accretive to earnings in the year ending June 2015 and “strongly accretive” thereafter. Chris Spooner said that Silhouette® will complete the recent build-out of our aesthetics business and significantly enhances Sinclair’s technological position and growth prospects in collagen stimulation. Our enlarged aesthetics portfolio provides us with the platform to outperform this fast growth market. Further, the Group expects to increase significantly its exposure to key aesthetics markets, including the US, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Japan in addition to leveraging the existing aesthetics sales and marketing infrastructure in Europe.” Apparently silhouette is the “new Botox”!

To pay for the acquisition Sinclair raised £19.5m net through the issue of 62.5m shares at 32p. Encouragingly its major shareholders, Tosca and Lansdowne, took up their maximum entitlement and now hold 28% and 12% respectively. George Soros became a new shareholder buying 25m shares.

The following is from the RNS statement issued on 15th April:-

Sinclair’s key brands are set out in the table below. Its aesthetics franchise includes scar reduction gel Kelocote®, the Group’s leading product by sales, and its facial rejuvenation brands which are described in more detail below. Wound Care focuses primarily on burns treatments where Flammacerium® provides the Group with a major growth opportunity through the recent grant by the US FDA of Orphan Drug designation for the treatment of patients with severe dermal burns. Skin Care is targeted at fast growth emerging markets and includes the…

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