Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Adcock Ingram interim results call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. For the participants on the webcast, please type your questions in the webcast question box. For the participants that dialed in, there will be an opportunity to ask questions later during the conference. If you should need assistance during the call, please signal for an operator by pressing star then zero. Please note that this call is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andy Hall, the CEO. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, Claudia. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the results webcast for our six months ended 31 December. We do appreciate you taking the time to show interest in the company, particularly on a budget day. I'm gonna take you through an overview of what we consider to be an exceptional operational and financial performance for the six months, despite the company having to operate within an environment still facing macroeconomic challenges. Once I complete my overview, I'll hand over to Dorette Neethling, our CFO, and Dorette will take you through a detailed overview of the financials. At the end of the presentation, we'll be happy to take any questions. I just wanted to start the presentation to give you an indication of where the company is relative to its COVID-19 statistics. In the fourth wave, we recorded just over 180 infections, but thankfully none of our employees were hospitalized. In total, we've had 824 cases at the company since the start of the pandemic, which is about 1/3 Of our workforce. Of course we know that these statistics over time lose a little bit of their meaning because of all of the asymptomatic cases that have been experienced and the many that we experienced in the fourth wave, which of course we wouldn't have known were positive. In terms of vaccinations, we are fully supportive of vaccinations for our people. We do believe that this is still the best way to prevent hospitalization and death. We've had a lot of internal vaccination awareness campaigns at the company. We've made every effort to encourage our employees to get voluntary vaccinations, and we've made significant progress in that regard, with 83% of our workforce having been vaccinated to date. We're currently considering and consulting with our employees and their representatives on whether mandatory vaccinations would be appropriate for our company to protect our employees, and we intend to make a decision on that within the next six weeks or so. Getting on to the business performance. Looking at the business overall, we are happy with what we consider to be a strong financial and operational performance. For the period under review, you'll see that turnover increased by 16%, mainly attributable to a 9% growth in volumes, where we had good demand, increased demand for over-the-counter and consumer healthcare products particularly, and our new products contributed 6% in the mix. We've recorded a gross margin improvement supported by a relatively strong rand, a favorable sales mix with those consumer healthcare and OTC products in it, as well as improved recoveries at our Clayville site, which does manufacture a lot of the over-the-counter products for Adcock Ingram. Operating expenditure increased by 13%, driven mainly by selling and distribution expenses, as well as an increase in marketing expenditure to support our core brands and a number of new product launches. As a result, trading profit increased by a healthy 25%. We look at the pharmaceutical market that's measured by IQVIA, and according to them, Adcock Ingram has retained its second-place ranking in the market. They show the total private market having grown by 6% over the last 12 months, and they show Adcock Ingram having grown by 9% over that period. We look at the individual business divisions. Our consumer business, which has grown substantially as we've tried to bulk up that business with non-price-regulated products. It now competes in healthcare, personal care, and home care segments of the market with products in analgesia, energy, dermatology, vitamins, minerals and supplements, shoe care and home cleaning. The division delivered a very strong performance during the period, with an increase in turnover of 33%, but that 33% was supported by the inclusion of Epi-max from January 2021. On a like for like basis, if we stripped Epi-max out of this division, revenue has increased by 14%, and some of the division's key brands like Bioplus, Compral, and ProbiFlora have shown really excellent growth. Trading profit was 59% ahead of the corresponding period and 21% ahead on a like for like basis if we removed Epi-max. A very good performance financially from this division. The COVID-19 pandemic has produced erratic trends with regards to consumers' healthcare demands, and the division has shown good flexibility in adapting to these changing needs. In line with the division's strategy to expand its basket of products, it acquired six personal care and healthcare brands in December. Those products being Prosana, Aqua Cream, Superzest, Arnicamill, Stop Cough, and Floradix. We should see some traction from those products in the second half of the year. On the innovation front, the division expanded its Panado range in September. It launched convenient 5 mL pediatric sachets. In November, it added a Bioplus stimulant-free booster variant into the mix. That's a caffeine-free formulation. In December, it added a ProbiFlora Fit for School chewable tablet into the ProbiFlora range. Good innovation overall from the consumer business. The division will continue to look for acquisitions within the healthcare, personal care and baby care space, where we are currently looking. Moving on to the over-the-counter division. This division still holds market leadership positions in pain, in coughs, colds and flu, in digestive and allergy therapeutic categories through the pharmacy channel in South Africa. The division's winter basket was obviously adversely impacted by the COVID pandemic due to the lack of traditional cold and flu seasons in South Africa. We have seen a recovery in that over the six months that we are currently reporting to you. Turnover improved by 26% and coupled with higher factory recoveries at the Clayville facility, resulted in trading profit increasing by an extraordinary 58%. The division has maintained its position as market leader in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 medicines in pharmacy. According to IQVIA, the growth is recorded at 15% on a moving annual turnover basis in a market growing at 11%. Some of the division's flagship brands, including Citro-Soda, Allergex, and Corenza C, have achieved double-digit ex-factory growth. Really strong performance from a lot of the brands in this division. The marketing agreement with Mundipharma for Betadine and T/Gel commenced in July. Those products are doing quite well in the market. Scopex, one of our treatments for abdominal cramps, was moved from security tins to convenient blister packs, resulting in a doubling of the sales rate for that brand. The now very well-established and successful Sponsors of Brave campaign continues to recognize healthcare professionals who are doing exceptional work within their communities. Overall, we're very pleased with how this division has recovered. Our prescription division markets a portfolio of branded and generic medicines, and also promotes numerous brands on behalf of multinational partners. This division performed well with turnover improving by 5%, but 11% on a like-for-like basis if the impact of the transfer of Epi-max to the consumer division is removed. The recovery here has been assisted by an increase in elective surgeries and doctors' consultations over the easing of the lockdown restrictions during the period. The division launched three products within its generics portfolio in the period. In addition to that, it's brought the iconic Stopain tablets back to market. Those were brought back in December, and some additional launches, including a new chemical entity, are being planned for the second half of the year. Our entry into biosimilars has paid off, with Blitzima gaining more than 50% market share of all new rituximab patients during the period. We have submitted our tender documents for the ARV tender, and we're awaiting the outcome of the adjudication of that tender from the National Department of Health. The new tender is scheduled to start on the July 1st. Our hospital division, which is the leading manufacturer and supplier of critical care and hospital products in South Africa, increased turnover by 13%. That was aided substantially by the onboarding of a portfolio of products from Roche, and we also saw improved demand for a number of therapies because of increased hospital admissions and elective surgeries. The division has partnered with Abbott Diagnostics to supply a range of rapid testing diagnostic kits. Demand was very good for those kits, especially during the fourth wave of the pandemic, and revenue for that portfolio now running at close to ZAR 30 million in the six-month period. The decline in COVID-19 related hospitalization has resulted in less demand, though, for acute renal dialysis products in the period. Trading profit in this division improved by 6%. Looking at the regulatory environment, for 2022, the government has announced a Single Exit Price increase of 3.5%. The industry was looking for 3.9%, so hopefully something closer to 4%, but certainly the 3.5% on its own will assist in protecting margins at the company. In December, a further two-year extension was also granted for all Schedule 0 medicines from the pricing regulations. That means products like Panado and Compral, and the like, continue to enjoy free pricing in the market, and a three-year extension was granted for medical devices. We've had no further correspondence from SAHPRA in relation to their review of the scheduling status of codeine and codeine-containing medicines. We completed all our necessary submissions of information requested by the regulator, so we now await any further correspondence from SAHPRA. Looking at the manufacturing and distribution side of the business, at Clayville, we have a high volume liquids and effervescent powders facility. As we said earlier, that business has delivered a good performance over the period with improved recoveries relative to the corresponding period. The good news for us is that in late December 2021, the company received regulatory approval from SAHPRA for the ophthalmic facility. We've now been able to commence manufacturing of sterile eye drops at Clayville. We are busy with the production of the first validation batches of Allergan's eye drops at the moment, and we intend to bring in an additional four products for manufacturing before the end of this financial year. The facility in Wadeville continues to be impacted by lower than anticipated tender demand for antiretrovirals. However, that plant has performed fairly well this period in terms of recoveries and well-controlled expense management. They're busy preparing for a World Health Organization inspection during the second half of this calendar year at Wadeville. In addition, the manufacturing of some of the products that we purchased from Aspen at the end of the 2021 financial year have been transferred into that facility. Overall, decent progress being made there. Our Aeroton-based critical care facility has had satisfactory throughput during the period. That facility continues to undergo a number of regulatory improvements and infrastructure upgrades to maintain its regulatory compliance. Those will continue to happen over the course of this calendar year. Our distribution department operates in partnership with RTT, which is our outbound logistics provider. Our focus with RTT remains on service levels, regulatory compliance, and cost containment, especially following the recent fuel price hikes. Although the pandemic has obviously placed significant pressure on the operations in distribution, the timely delivery of products was not compromised, and overall an on-time delivery of 98.5% was achieved. Unit volumes in that system have increased by 15%. Looking at the environment, we've completed a solar installation at our Midrand site in partnership with our landlord Growthpoint. That was commissioned on the first of February, and we are busy with further solar installations at our Durban and Cape Town distribution centers, and we've also approved some capital expenditure for a solar facility at our Clayville factory. Starting to make decent progress on the environmental side. On the transformation side, very happy with the performance of the team there. It's still a key strategic focus area for our business. In November, we were given a level 2 B-BBEE rating from our ratings agency. That completes my overview. I'll hand over to Dorette for a commentary on the detailed financials. Thank you, Andy, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Before I get into the details of the financial results, I would just like to mention that the results booklet is available on our website as well as on the SENS platform. In a closer look at the income statement, I'm looking starting with turnover of ZAR 4.3 billion, which increased by 15.6% compared with the six months to December 2020, driven by excellent volume growth of 9.3%, mainly due to the improved demand for the over-the-counter and consumer healthcare products, as well as a mix benefit of 6%. Overall price realization was, however, less than 1%. In the OTC and consumer businesses, price increases in line with inflation were realized, but this was offset by double-digit price deflation in both the renal segment of the hospital division and the ARV segment in the prescription division. Gross profit of ZAR 1.5 billion ended 17.2% higher than the comparative six-month period, just ahead of the growth in sales. The gross margin of 35.0% ended slightly above the comparative period, which was at 34.5%, supported by the strengthening of the rand and improved product sales mix and higher factory recoveries at the Clayville factory as a result of the increased demand for the over-the-counter products, which offset the higher than inflationary increases we've seen in utilities and wages. Turning to some detail on the material foreign currencies we bought during the six months. $34.3 million U.S. dollars at an average rate of ZAR 15.01, which was a 11.3% strengthening compared to the comparative period, which was at ZAR 16.92, and EUR 24.7 million euros at an average rate of ZAR 17.60, representing a 7.9% strengthening compared to the comparative period, which was at ZAR 19.12. With approximately 54% of FECs in U.S. dollars and 45% in euro, the weighted cost of our basket of all currencies decreased by approximately 9.8% compared to the comparative period. At the end of December, so the end of the reporting year period, we carried the following open FECs. $19.2 million at ZAR 15.68, which is a 4.5% weakening over the ZAR 15.01 achieved in the first six months, and EUR 21.1 million at ZAR 17.99, which is a 2.2% weakening over the ZAR 17.60 achieved in the half year. Operating expenses ended 13.1% higher than the comparative period. The primary drivers being increased selling and distribution expenses related to the higher turnover and higher marketing investments behind our core brands and to support the new product launches. As a result, trading profit of ZAR 543 million is 25.5% above December 2020. The non-trading expenses of just short of ZAR 32 million consist mainly of share-based expenses of ZAR 27 million, which is higher than the prior period due to the change from the phantom option scheme to a performance-based long-term incentive scheme, and also some corporate transaction activity costs of ZAR 3.6 million. Consequently, operating profit of ZAR 512 million ended 32.6% above the comparative six months. Net finance costs for the period are ZAR 22.5 million, which includes IFRS 16 finance cost of ZAR 13.2 million. Equity accounted earnings from joint ventures for the period, which arise from National Renal Care, the joint venture with Netcare, as well as the India facility, a joint venture with Meiji of Japan, are ZAR 54 million, 9% below the comparative period. We've seen a bit of a mixed bag in the results here, with the NRC results improving by 14% over the comparative period, while the Indian JV earnings dropped by 16%, and this was due mainly to the increased cost of paracetamol as well as the discontinuance of a government export incentive in India. Profit before tax for the six months is ZAR 544 million, up 28.2%. The effective tax rate adjusted for equity accounted earnings is 31%, with nondeductible expenditure causing the increase over the statutory rate. Headline earnings for the six-month period under review amounted to ZAR 392 million, which is up 25.7%. This translates into headline earnings per share of ZAR 2.423, 30% above the comparative period, assisted by the share repurchases by the group in the previous financial year. If we turn to the balance sheet, which is on page seven of the booklet, and looking at property, plant, and equipment, the depreciation charges for this six months amounted to ZAR 89 million, marginally below the prior year, and includes depreciation of ZAR 20 million on the separately disclosed right of use assets capitalized in terms of IFRS 16. Intangible assets, including goodwill, have a carrying value of ZAR 1.3 billion and comprise of generic consumer and OTC trademarks and license agreements. It also includes the addition of the Aspen brands acquired in the current reporting period for ZAR 165 million. The other big-ticket items are the basket of products we acquired from Aspen in the previous financial year, as well as the intangibles and goodwill recognized when the group acquired Genop and Plush. Amortization amounted to just short of ZAR 5 million in the period. In looking at the working capital, and I'll start with inventory. The inventory of just short of ZAR 2 billion is stated at the lower of cost and net realizable value after provisions of ZAR 305 million. Days in inventory at the end of December are 121 days compared to the 123 days at the end of June 2021. Trade accounts receivable of ZAR 1.8 billion are shown net of provisions of ZAR 38 million, with the increase in the value due to the higher sales. Days in receivables are 59 days, a slight improvement from the 60 days we reported in June. Government debt makes up 19% of the trade receivables, and around 60% of this customer's total outstanding amount is due within 60 days or less. At the bottom of the balance sheet, the group has shareholders' funds of just over ZAR 5 billion at the end of December. The other big movement was in the non-distributable reserves, which moved about ZAR 80 million, which was due to an increase in the cash flow hedge accounting reserve of ZAR 21 million, an increase in the foreign currency translation reserve of ZAR 36 million, and an increase in the share-based payment reserve of ZAR 23 million. The only liabilities at the bottom of ZAR 265 million relates to leases. Turning to the segment information, which is on pages 10 and 11 of the booklet, and I'll start with the Consumer division. The Consumer turnover improved by 32.7% to just short of ZAR 800 million, with key brands posting healthy growth, as Andy explained, notably from Panado, benefiting from the COVID-19 vaccination campaign and the inclusion of the Epi-max brand, effective January 1, 2021, after being transferred from the prescription division. On a like for like basis, sales improved 13.6%. Volumes improved 8.1%, and price realization in this division was 4.2%. A gross margin improvement was realized in this period, driven by the improvement in the exchange rate and a advantageous sales mix with the addition of Epi-max, with a high margin. As a result, trading profit ended on an impressive ZAR 173 million, 59% ahead of the prior period, or 21% ahead on a like-for-like basis. It seems our strategy of continuing to build the non-price regulated consumer business is proving beneficial. Moving to the OTC business. OTC, which focuses on products through the pharmacy channel, turnover improved by 26.5% to ZAR 994 million, arising from the relaxation in COVID-19 restrictions, which has resulted in improved demand across the cough and cold basket, compared with the struggles experienced in the comparative period, resulting in volumes increasing by 20.7%. An average price increase of 5.2% was realized, while mix contributed 0.5%, as the Mundipharma business compensated for the loss of the Abbott brands, which were returned to the principal. A significant gross margin improvement was realized, driven by the advantageous sales mix and higher recoveries in the Clayville factory due to the increase in production levels following the improved demand. As a result, trading profit increased by an exceptional 58% to just short of ZAR 170 million. In looking at prescriptions, prescription turnover improved by 4.6% to ZAR 1.57 billion, aided by the lower levels of lockdown compared to the comparative period, as well as a steady increase in elective surgeries seen over the last six months. On a like for like basis, sales improved by 11.2%. That is, if we take out the impact of Epi-max being removed. Volumes increased by 6.5%, but double-digit price deflation in the ARV segments resulted in overall price deflation in the division of just short of 0.5%. The launch of products in the second half of the previous financial year and in the current period substantially compensated for the transfer of Epi-max to Consumer. A decline in the gross margin was realized due to a variation in the sales mix after the transfer of Epi-max, as well as a higher proportion of ARV tender sales at a lower margin in the current reporting period. As a result, trading profit declined by 14% to ZAR 122 million, but improved almost 12% like for like. Lastly, in the Hospital Division, where turnover improved by 13% to ZAR 984 million, with all product categories achieving growth. The blood and specialty segment benefited from ongoing rapid testing diagnostic products for COVID-19 in their pathology portfolio, as well as an increase in blood drives. The medicine delivery segment gained from the increased level of elective surgeries, while the renal segment benefited from the onboarding of the Roche renal portfolio, effective since February of last year. Organic volumes contributed 2.8%. Selling prices were decreased in the renal business following the strengthening of the rand, as agreed with customers when prices had been increased during the previous financial year, when the rand deteriorated. This resulted in an overall price deflation of 5.2% in this business. Although the gross margin ended marginally lower than the prior period, and marketing investment spend increased as a result of the new product launches, trading profit improved by 6.3% to ZAR 80.6 million. Thank you. I will hand back to Andy to close the session. Thanks, Dorette, and that's all from our side. Claudia, we're happy to take any questions on the teleconference in the first instance. Thank you very much, sir. For the participants that dialed in, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your touchtone phone or on the keypad on your screen. If you decide to withdraw the question, please press star then two to remove yourself from the list. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one. Just a reminder for the participants on the webcast, please type your questions in the webcast question box. We will pause to see if there are any questions on the phone lines. Ladies and gentlemen, just another reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then one. We will pause to see if there are any questions on the phone lines. At this time, we have no questions on the phone lines. Can I just hand over to see if there are any questions on the webcast? From Jonathan Louw. What feedstock input prices are important and which currencies affect profit margins? Jonathan, I think Dorette has spoken through the FX effects on the business. Effectively, if you look at our cost of goods across the business, the entire business, just over 50% of our input costs are foreign denominated, and that's just marginally more in dollars than in euros. If you looked at each of the individual businesses, certainly in a business like Prescription and Consumer, a heavy dollar impact there. In OTC, it swings a little bit more to the rand because we do a lot of local production here in OTC. In the Hospital business, it's heavily weighted towards the euro because our renal products come in from Europe. Okay. There was also a question to Andy and team. Is the elective demand in prescription back to pre-pandemic levels? Some color in terms where we are relative to pre-COVID. The second part relates also from Itumeleng. What was the amount of COVID costs incurred versus the prior period? How much of these costs are contained in your normal OpEx costs, and how much do you expect to remain in the base going forward as part of our normal OpEx? Andy? Okay. Look on whether we're back at pre-COVID levels, if you look back to sort of December 2019, that gives you, I think, a reasonable benchmark of where the business was pre-COVID. Because effectively in the first half of calendar 2020, you had a lot of volatility in terms of sales because people didn't really know what to buy relative to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second half, you saw a pretty large depression in cough, cold and flu medicine because of no winter season in that particular year. If we look overall at the business, this last six months, we'd be up in double digits at both the revenue and the trading profit line relative to the six months ended December 2019. You can see that the business has sort of recovered with kind of inflationary increases overall within the business. If you looked at the businesses individually, it's difficult to deconstruct consumer and prescription because we've moved products between those markets. If you combine the consumer and the prescription business, they are well ahead of where they were pre-COVID. They're up by around about a third at the revenue level and a little bit more at the trading profit level. One would suggest, one would expect that that's more weighted towards the consumer business than the prescription business, because the script business has still suffered from some COVID pandemic-related demand, because we haven't had 100% easing of lockdown restrictions over this period. The OTC business is still a little bit behind where we were pre-COVID, but we're very happy with the recovery. At the top line, they're doing better, but at the bottom line, a little bit behind where we are pre-COVID. They appear to be recovering towards the sort of ZAR 400 million trading profit level on an annual basis. The hospital business is well ahead of where it was pre-COVID, in double- digits, both at revenue and trading profit level. There's a mixed story there. You know, when there are a lot of COVID-19 hospitalizations, you sell a lot of acute renal therapy. When there are elective surgeries, you sell a lot of injections, intravenous fluids, and you get more blood bags through the system 'cause SANBS is busy with its blood drive. That's a story of mix more than anything else. The second question? Question on the COVID cost. I can comment on the COVID costs, Itumeleng. The COVID costs we currently have in the business is really not material. I think we've embedded the measures we have to, so a little bit of cost in additional cleaning, et cetera. But also with having the employees not full-time back at the office, there's a bit of savings on certain other operational costs. I think through the lockdown levels, you know, we've come a long way from that first wave when if someone was sick, a plant was shut down for three days and a deep cleansing was done. You know, those processes are a lot quicker, and there are no plant interruptions because of COVID, so nothing material in that regard. From Grant Morris, with regards to the sterile eye drops, could you please give us some detail on the products or the use and whether for the local or export market, and would this be in the prescription division? Grant, this ophthalmic facility is a big win for us to have got it approved by SAHPRA. To give you some background, we sell ophthalmic products both in our prescription division and in our OTC division, but primarily in prescription. We have an ophthalmic business in prescription today that is around about ZAR 200 million per annum. About ZAR 120 million of that is capital equipment that we import from various partners across the globe, and about ZAR 80 million of that is eye drops. Virtually all of those eye drops, not at the moment virtually, but prior to this facility being approved, all of those eye drops are either manufactured by a contract manufacturer in South Africa or by our licensed partners from whom we bring them in offshore. Our plan here is to take all of the products that we manufacture locally through contract manufacturers and over time push them into the Clayville facility. As I said, that's around about ZAR 80 million worth of revenue to the company per annum. If you look in the market today, because of the dearth of contract manufacturers in South Africa, we're out of products like Spersallerg and Spersadex Comp, which are very products that are highly recommended by pharmacists and very well prescribed by doctors. There's no doubt that we can improve revenue by bringing those products into the market. In addition to that, we're on the brink of signing a marketing and sales agreement with another big ophthalmic company that could add around about another ZAR 200 million worth of revenue at Adcock Ingram. Now, we would only get a sales and marketing fee out of that agreement, so it's not particularly high margin, but it gives our reps in this ophthalmic division more products to take to ophthalmologists. Over time, we would explore with that company, particularly on older products, whether they would want to move those products into our factory for the local market. There's no intention to sell export products, ophthalmic export products out of Clayville. We don't have any export sales for those types of products. Okay. Grant, you also had a question with regards to group volumes relative to December 2019, but Andy did touch on that. Unless we've missed something, I'm going to skip that question. There is a question from Junaid Brey. You mentioned the recovery in manufacturing utilization. Where is it currently at relative to normal levels? Junaid, again, we've got to talk individual factories there. At the moment, at the Clayville factory, if you look at our cough mixture production, as well as our powders and effervescent production, I'm talking about products like our Coffelex, Citro-Soda, Compral powders, and the like, we're operating at full capacity there, and in fact are running overtime shifts in that factory. The ophthalmic facility is still at very low capacity because we still are validating the first product there, so that's gonna take a little bit of time to get going. If you look at Wadeville, the ARV facility currently running at around 40%-50% capacity, and that is largely a factor of the demand on the state tender. When you get a lot of orders through for the state, you get a lot of production. When you get less orders, the production obviously falls off. We've become a pretty small player in the private sector ARV market, so that's not affecting that factory much, given that we're not a big player in private sector ARVs. The factory on the creams and ointments liquid side there at Wadeville has done well. That's operating at about 80% capacity. There we benefited both from the demand for our own products, and we're doing quite a lot of contract manufacturing for other pharmaceutical companies in that half of the factory. At the Aeroton factory, there again, we're running at full capacity, and we don't expect that to change in the foreseeable future. The real issue about Aeroton is trying to do all of these regulatory upgrades and infrastructure upgrades while trying to produce or else building sufficient inventory ahead of when we have to upgrade a particular section. There's a lot of complexity in just running that factory. There is a question from Jan Meintjies that says, "Adjusting for the restructuring costs in the base, profit growth was closer to 21%. Can this growth be maintained in the second half if current conditions prevail?" The stronger rand will also help. Yeah, Jan, look, we agree with you on the rand. While the rand's sitting at these levels of about ZAR 15, certainly that's good for Adcock Ingram and I guess for the pharma industry here in general. That does make us feel good. I guess, you know, we don't give forecasts, but certainly if we're reverting to an environment where there's a more of a normal cold and flu environment in South Africa, then we would think that this is sustainable for the second half, because we should sell in winter products effectively in March, April and May. It's all for us gonna be a factor of what happens relative to COVID restrictions and freedom of movement restrictions in the market. Normalized, I think we can sustain it, but if we have another big COVID wave, which is not indicated at the moment, by the way, a big COVID wave with hospitalizations, that changes the scenario a little bit. Again, it only impacts the OTC business. The other three businesses should still continue to perform well. I think this adds to the question that James Corcoran asked about how much more is to come from OTC and consumer if this cold and flu cycle normalizes. He also asked if we can comment on what drove the strong performance, given the weak flu and cold season. Yeah. Look, I think where we were coming from was a base where there was very little cold and flu inventory in the wholesaler and retailer system because effectively they'd gone through two winters where they had bulked. They'd stocked up in March 2020, so we had ridiculously high sales in March 2020 across the industry. Then effectively those products never sold out properly across the next two winters. The first winter, particularly bad in 2020, and in 2021 a little bit better, but not markedly so. Effectively, I think we're now in the position where we are restocking that channel, which has taken, let's call it 18 months to two years to effectively move through the system. In a normal cold and flu environment, it would have moved out in a single season. The second thing that helped us was that this Omicron variant definitely gave rise to some symptoms that are very akin to cold and flu. We had people who were complaining of coughs, we had people who were complaining of sore throats, we had people who were complaining of some level of sinusitis and headaches and the like. Just symptomatically, our products would be indicated for those sorts of problems. Omicron definitely helped us in that respect. There's a question from Nick de Vos asking: Please, can you comment on the prospect of future share repurchases, and also comment on overall trading post half year end. Nick, we have authorization to continue with share buybacks. That was given to us by our shareholders at the November AGM. We've obviously been in a closed period, so we haven't been in the market recently. We'll continue to look at what the share price is, look at what our available capital is relative to our capital expenditure program and any opportunities on the market. And if we think it's opportune, there's nothing to stop us purchasing back additional shares. And then your other question, Doreen. That's okay. What was Nick's other question? Mm, no, it was- Trading post half-year end. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Oh, yeah. Sorry. The momentum is pretty much what it's been. It gets a little bit lumpy now in January and February, and the reason is the SEP increase of 3.5%, we effectively have got through the administrative process at the Department of Health at the end of January. What traditionally happens pre-SEP increases is that some of the big customers that have available capacity in their system will order pre the SEP increase to try and take advantage of that margin. That means January would be a good month just because they were anticipating an SEP increase, and February would be a quieter month because effectively they've stocked up. On average, the two months look like the momentum is pretty much what we've seen in the period that we've reported. Maybe just marginally softer, but not markedly so. A question from James Corcoran. What multiple did you pay for the July and December acquisitions, and what synergies do you expect? We're not disclosing those multiples on the Aspen products. What we can tell you is that we effectively in our negotiation with Aspen had agreed a gross margin multiple on those products, because effectively once we get them into our system, that looked like a reasonable metric to be conducting evaluation. The synergies on those products really are manufacturing synergies. The quicker we can get those products into the Wadeville factory, the better, because what it means is there's a contract manufacturing margin inherent in those products, which at the moment we aren't getting. Nice. That's that. James also had a question that asked about commenting on what drove the increase in the provision line. James, you were not clear on that, but I assume it's the increase on the provision of stock line because that moved a little bit from last year. It's mainly because of two things. Because we have a higher stock value and some of these purchases we did, in the COVID, when COVID levels of lockdown were still quite strict. We had some products that will expire, that we did some prudent provisioning for. We also have done or changed slightly in some divisions, the way we provide for quarantine stock. That is the period since stock is released from the factory and await clearance from the quality assurance people. We have shortened that timeline. That also drove that increase in the inventory provision. Lastly. Yeah, we will get back to that. Yeah. There's one more question from Itumeleng, and he just asked how we've seen our demands being impacted in branded medicines compared to or affected by the private label. Itumeleng, I assume you're referring mainly to the OTC and consumer businesses there. I'll be honest with you, still in health, let's call it pure healthcare, so analgesia, coughs, colds and flu and the like. We haven't seen a significant impact from house brands. Where we do see more of a switch towards house brands is on the more complementary medicine side. So vitamins, minerals and supplements and the like, where retailers effectively have the ability to sell in a much broader portfolio there. But on the branded side, no real impact that we've noticed. Okay. That's all the questions on the webcast. Claudia. Claudia, if we can ask if there are any questions on the conference call lines. Okay, thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, just one final reminder before we conclude. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then one. We will pause to see if there are any questions. Mr. Hall, we have no further questions. Can I hand back to you for closing remarks? Claudia, thank you for your assistance today and to all of our shareholders and other investors who have dialed in. We appreciate you taking interest in the company and, if you have any other questions that you wanna raise, you're welcome to either call us or send through on email. Thanks everybody and have a good day. Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.