Uniphar ends year with stronger-than-expected earnings growth

(Sharecast News) - Uniphar reported stronger-than-expected earnings growth in 2025 on Tuesday, supported by robust organic performance across its divisions, lower finance costs and the benefit of its share buyback programme.

In an unaudited trading update for the year ended 31 December, the AIM-traded healthcare services group said adjusted earnings per share rose by around 21%, ahead of its expectations.

That reflected 9% organic gross profit growth, reduced financing costs and accretion from the �35m share buyback completed during the year.

Uniphar said it ended the year with a strong liquidity position, with net bank debt-to-EBITDA of 1.5 times, lower than anticipated, driven by favourable working capital movements.

Looking ahead, the group said it remained well-positioned to deliver organic gross profit growth across all divisions in 2026, in line with its medium-term targets.

It said it expected double-digit organic gross profit growth in Uniphar Pharma, high single-digit growth in Uniphar Medtech and low single-digit growth in its supply chain and retail division.

Mergers and acquisitions remained a core element of the group's growth strategy, with management maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation while progressing an active acquisition pipeline.

Chief executive Ger Rabbette said 2025 marked the company's strongest rate of organic gross profit growth since listing.

"2025 was another great year for Uniphar, with all our divisions contributing to our fastest rate of organic gross profit growth since IPO," he said.

"We have now delivered an excellent six-year EPS CAGR of 16%.

"We remain confident of reaching our �200m EBITDA target by 2028, with at least 80% of our growth being organic."

Uniphar said it expected to publish its full-year results on 24 February.

At 1047 GMT, shares in Uniphar were up 5.14% at 327p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.