GSK GSK plc

By Cecilia Butini

GSK PLC on Wednesday raised its guidance for the full year and posted rising sales for the third quarter that beat expectations.

The British pharmaceutical major posted sales of 7.83 billion pounds ($8.99 billion) for the third quarter, up from GBP6.63 billion the year prior, and beating a company-provided consensus of GBP7.32 billion.

Operating profit was GBP1.19 billion, down slightly from GBP1.38 billion, due to the fair-value loss on the retained stake in consumer-healthcare business Haleon, which was spun off earlier in the year. Total earnings per share also fell to 18.8 pence from 21.9 pence for the same reason, GSK said.

Aftertax profit clocked in at GBP779 million, down from GBP946 million, according to the company.

GSK expects 2022 sales to increase between 8% and 10% and adjusted operating profit to increase between 15% and 17%, excluding contributions from Covid-19 products. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to grow around 1% lower than operating profit, it said.

GSK said that it continues to see evidence of healthcare systems recovering, and that it expects its specialty-medicines business to increase by a low-double-digit percentage at constant exchange rates, excluding sales of its Covid-19 treatment Xevudy.

Sales in its general-medicines business are expected to be flat, as a consequence of the presence of generic versions of respiratory medicines, it said.

Guidance on vaccine sales is going to exclude Covid-19 products, and growth is expected in the mid- to high teens percentage at constant exchange rates for the full year, GSK said. Best-selling shingles vaccine Shingrix is foreseen totaling double-digit growth and record annual sales in 2022, it added.

The company declared a dividend of 13.75p a share for the third quarter, and said it doesn't expect changes to the 61.25p dividend for 2022 that it had previously expected.

Looking ahead, sales in Covid-19 products are expected to be substantially lower, GSK said, and 2022 sales within the business make for a reduced profit contribution compared with 2021, due to an increased proportion of Xevudy sales, which have a lower margin. This is expected to reduce adjusted operating profit growth by around 4%, the company said.

GSK spun off its consumer-healthcare business in July, going on to form Haleon, which is listed independently. The company said the gain on the demerger for the distribution of its 54.5% ownership in the consumer-healthcare business was GBP7.2 billion, which was recognized in the third quarter. The total gain on the demerger in the period was GBP9.6 billion, GSK said.

Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 02, 2022 05:01 ET (09:01 GMT)

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