The ALS Ltd (ASX: ALQ) share price is on the move on Wednesday morning.
At the time of writing, the testing services company's shares are up 3% to $12.94.
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Why is the ALS share price rising?
Investors have been bidding the ALS share price higher today after the release of its annual general meeting presentation and the announcement of an acquisition.
In respect to the former, the presentation took investors through the company's performance in FY 2021 and provided an update on trading so far in FY 2022.
ALS has started FY 2022 strongly and is expecting this to lead to solid first half profit growth. Management has provided guidance of first half underlying net profit after tax of between $115 million and $125 million. The midpoint of this guidance range represents a sizeable 49% increase on the prior corresponding period.
It advised that this reflects the strong start that it is seeing across its Life Sciences and Commodities divisions as volumes continue to improve as global activity increases.
Acquisition news
Not included in its first half guidance is the proposed acquisition of an initial 49% interest in NUVISAN, a pharmaceutical testing business with operations in Germany and France.
Management believes the acquisition provides it with the platform to expand its offering from quality control testing into 'upstream' services in research and development.
Growth in this area of the market is driven by major pharmaceutical companies outsourcing drug development research and testing due to increasing pricing pressure, lack of internal capability, and expertise from external providers.
ALS will initially acquire 49% of the equity in NUVISAN for a consideration of ~EUR145 million. It also has an exclusive call option to acquire the remaining equity from 1 January 2024. This option expires by 30 September 2026 at the latest.
Should this option be exercised, the remaining 51% equity in NUVISAN will be acquired at 13x adjusted EBITDA based on the 12 months preceding the purchase.
ALS' Managing Director and CEO, Raj Naran, commented "This is a significant expansion of our Life Sciences capability as we grow our presence in the strategically important Pharmaceutical market. This will allow us to move our service offering up the supply chain into drug development and research testing, which significantly expands our addressable markets. NUVISAN offers us a platform in the key markets of Germany and France which has long been an aspiration for our Life Sciences division."
