AMS Group reports ‘strong’ first half amid rumoured takeover interest

Advanced Medical Solutions (AMS) Group reported an increase in revenue in its interim results amid rumoured interest from private equity firms.

In the six months to 30 June, revenue rose by eight per cent to £68m, with strong growth in the firm’s surgical business unit offsetting “challenges” in its Woundcare unit.

This helped adjusted pretax profit to climb eight per cent, rising to £14.8m, up from £13.8m the year before.

On a reported basis, pretax profit fell by over half (52 per cent) to £5.7m. AMS Group said was “a result of significant acquisition-related exceptional items incurred in the period.”

At the start of July, AMS Group completed the purchase of Peters Surgical, a provider of surgical sutures, for £120m. It said the “transformative” acquisition was “progressing well”.

Earlier in the year, AMS Group also bought Syntacoll, a specialist manufacturer of drug-eluting collagens which strengthened its biosurgical business.

“We are delighted with the progress made so far this year, having completed the acquisitions of Peters Surgical and Syntacoll and now being able to report such a strong first half performance from the AMS Surgical business unit,” boss Chris Meredith said.

Meredith noted that Woundcare has “continued to struggle”, but suggested that the company had found a “pathway to improving its profitability” having conducted a strategic review.

Looking forward the firm said that revenue and adjusted profit would be “in line with its expectations”. On the back of its results, the firm upped its dividend to 0.77p, up from 0.70p last year.

The company, which develops and manufactures tissue-healing technology, has also attracted the attention of private equity firm Inflexion, according to Sky News.

Sky reported that it was unclear whether there were active talks taking place between the two parties and AMS Group did not mention any takeover interest in its results.