ProStrakan set to go out in style with maiden profit

Shareholders will meet on 31 March to vote on a 130p-a-share takeover offer from Japanese peer Kyowa Hakko Kirin (KHK), which has the board's approval and values the firm at about 300 million. If approved by 75 per cent of voting shareholders, the deal is expected to be completed on 21 April.

The takeover already has the backing of institutional investors which hold a total stake of 47 per cent.

City analysts think a counter-bid is unlikely to emerge, with Shawn Manning at Singer Capital Markets expecting KHK's offer to be accepted by shareholders. In what could be its final set of results as a listed company, ProStrakan posted an operating profit of 6.1m for 2010, compared with a 9.6m loss in 2009.

The group also narrowed its pre-tax losses from 15m to just 600,000 on the back of turnover climbing from 79m to 100.2m.

Allan Watson, ProStrakan's chief financial officer, told The Scotsman: "This is the first time we've broken through the important 100m mark.

"We've kept costs tight and with that comes the higher operating profit."

Production of Sancuso - an anti-sickness medicine for cancer suffers - resumed in January after a 12-week shut down at one of its contractors' factories.

ProStrakan also enjoyed a double boost on the regulatory front, with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) giving approval at the end of December to sell its testosterone cream, Fortesta, to treat hypergonadism and then following up with the go-ahead in January to market Abstral, which relieves the pain suffered by patients who are undergoing cancer treatment.

The go-ahead to sell Fortesta in the US triggered a 8.1m milestone payment from Canadian distribution partner Endo.