Over the past decade, the company has completed more than 20 strategic acquisitions that “have strengthened our core businesses while expanding into new sectors, including medical technology”, he said.
“Under his leadership, Ebos has delivered total shareholder returns of 168%, significantly outperforming the market,” Coutts said.
The healthcare and pharmaceutical marketer and wholesaler said revenue rose 9.5% in the six months to December 31 to A$5.9 billion (NZ$6.7b) when normalised to exclude the Chemist Warehouse Australia distribution contract. Statutory revenue fell 9.0%.
Underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 7.1% to A$291 million, while statutory Ebitda was down 9% to A$276m.
The company declared an interim dividend of NZ$0.57 per share, unchanged from the prior year.
“This performance reflects the execution of our near-term strategies to drive revenue growth, cost efficiencies and strategic acquisition,” Cullity said.
The company also reported an underlying net profit after tax of A$131m, down 14.1% on the year.
Statutory net profit was A$110m, down 18.9%.
Ebos reiterated its guidance that the group expects to generate underlying Ebitda of between A$575m and A$600m in the current financial year, which implies growth of approximately 5% to 10%.
