Too Many Quarterlies
S&P Dow Jones Indices is reclassifying Greece from Developed Market to Emerging Market status. Countries usually move in the other direction. More from India, Israel, Ireland, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Greece, Brazil, and Colombia. There are too many quarterlies to count.
*Considering the brutality of its boardroom battle yesterday, Teva surprised on the upside with Q3 non-GAAP eps (excluding non-recurring items) at $1.27, just one penny down from prior year and a penny ahead of estimates by the pundits, as reported by acting CEO Eyal Desheh, CFO. In both dollars and local currencies, revenues rose 2% to $5.1 bn mainly thanks to continued US generics sales, up 4% of total revenues to 54%. This beat estimates by about $100 mn. Better sales of global specialty and OTC medicines also helped. For the year to date, profits hits $706 mn vs a loss last year to Q3 of $706 mn. However global active pharma ingredients (API) sales to third parties fell; those to Teva itself don’t count.
Europe accounted for 28% of sales this year, or $1.4 bn, vs 4% last year, helped by Teva specialties. Revenues were down 1% in dollars and down 5% in local currencies, hurt by lower API sales.
Sales in the rest of the world fell 11% in dollars to $533 mn. They were nearly flat in local currencies, hurt by the decline in the yen and some Latin currencies, and delays in Russian purchases of multiple sclerosis blockbuster Copaxone.
Globally, Teva generic sales were flat at $2.5 bn and accounted for under half of total revenues in Q3, at 49% vs 50% a year earlier. US generics sales rose on the back of launches of copycats of Niaspan, Temodar, Tricor, and amphtamine salts.
Desheh said Teva narrowed its outlook for 2013, and now sees revenue of $19.7-$20.3 bn and adjusted eps at $4.95-$5.05 vs earlier forecasts if $19.5-$20.5 bn and $4.85-$5.15 respectively. Dr. Jeremy Levin today told the press that he didn’t resign; he and the board agreed on the terms of his leaving.
What worries me more than any number at Teva is what will happen to the renowned team of drug experts Dr Levin brought with him from English-language drug companies when he joined Teva, like the chief scientist Michael Hayden and fellow Bristol Myersexec global operations chief Carlo de Notaristefani.
*Even better numbers came from Barrick Gold along with an announcement that to conserve cash, it will suspend construction on the Argentina side of its Pascua-Lama mine project straddling the border with Chile; the Chilean side suspension was imposed by the environmental authorities. is on the Argentina-Chile border to conserve cash.
ABX reported Q3 eps fell to 17 cents vs 65 cents in Q3 2012, beating estimates. Non-GAAP earnings hit 58 cents, nicely over the Bloomberg poll analyst forecast of 50 cents. While Canadian, ABX reports in US$s. Sales fell to $2.99 bn, down 15% from prior year, but above the Bloomberg estimate of $2.91 bn. Because the price of gold has fallen 20% from last year’s level, that Barrick has gained market share.
Its new CEO Jamie Sokalsky has been divesting or cutting production at high-cost mines to focus on cheaper ones. ABX wrote down $8.7 bn in Q2, $5.1 bn for Pascua-Lama, and cut its dividend. In an interview with Bloomberg last month, Sokalsky said more asset sales are planned, but at least the dividends has been maintained.
