Ayrton To Go Public Tomorrow

Ayrton Drug Manufacturing Limited will launch its initial public offer (IPO) on Wednesday, June 7, this year.

This follows the approval of the drug manufacturer's prospectus and application to list on the stock exchange by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) respectively.

The successful floatation, which will end on July 7, and subsequent listing of the company's shares, will make it the second pharmaceutical company to be listed on the GSE.

The company is already provisionally listed on the GSE.
Ayrton is expected to offer 20.1 per cent of its shares to the public for ¢36.72 billion.

The company is also hoping to pay dividend in its first year of going public. For five years running, the company's turnover and profitability have assumed an upward trend, posting a turnover of ¢69 billion in 2004 and ¢73 billion in 2005.

Its profit after tax in 2004 was ¢6 billion and ¢7.2 billion in 2005. The 2006 first quarter results of Ayrton show a profit after tax of ¢2.94 billion, and given the current trend, the company could post an ¢11.7 billion by the close of this year.

A late Ghanaian entrepreneur, Samuel Benson Adjepong, incorporated the company in September 1965 to produce tablets for headaches such as APC.

To date, Ayrton, a Club 100 company, has about 80 products in the tablet, syrup, capsule, powder, ointment and cream categories, with plans to add seven more to the list.