Health and wellness operator Wellnex Life Ltd (ASX: WNX) is set to gain from Australia’s pain relief. The company is poised to extend its reach further into the nation’s $10.7 billion (2021 IQVIA Scan Data from February 2022) health and wellness market after entering a binding agreement to acquire pain relief brand Pain Away. For a total purchase price of $22 million, including $1.15 million of inventory at cost, Wellnex will acquire the business and assets of Pain Away through equity financing. Wellnex estimates an added $5.1 million in EBITDA with a margin of 37% on a pro-forma basis for FY23B. Following the acquisition, Wellnex expects to earn a consolidated revenue of $62.9 million and EBITDA of $9 million for FY24B. The transaction also boosts Wellnex’s total FY23B revenue expectations to $42.5 million (previously estimated at $29 million in Q3 FY23). “The acquisition of Pain Away adds significant and immediate scale to Wellnex’s ‘100%-owned’ brand portfolio, whilst materially strengthening our financial profile and enhancing our competitive position in Australia’s fast-growing health and wellness sector,” CEO George Karafotias said. Since listing in July 2021, Wellnex has aggressively grown its portfolio to include wholly owned brands such as Wakey Wakey, The Iron Company, Pharmacy Own, acquired brands Mr Bright and Pain Away and key licensing agreements with Haleon (formerly GSK) and Arrotex.

Pain Away to accelerate business growth

Pain Away is considered the second largest provider of topical pain relief products in Australia and the largest Australian-owned brand in the category. Notably, the brand is recognised by the AFL as its official pain relief partner. The brand’s product range includes 25 product types across categories such as creams, sprays, patches, lotions, tablets, capsules and bath salts which are distributed nationally through over 6,000 major pharmacy outlets across Australia, including Chemist Warehouse, as well as leading grocery retailers Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.

Image: Wellnex Life

“What is really exciting about Pain Away is the opportunity to accelerate growth of the existing portfolio into grocery and international markets, whilst extending the brand into new categories in the market, such as pet health,” Mr Karafotias said. “The brand is also perfectly aligned to our medicinal cannabis strategy with our focus on pain relief,” he added.

Venturing into medicinal cannabis

Wellnex has a joint venture with Chemist Warehouse and medicinal cannabis manufacturer OneLife Botanicals to produce and launch a medicinal cannabis product in a bid capitalise on Australia’s emerging Special Access Scheme-B (SAS-B) prescription-only cannabis market. The SAS-B market in Australia recorded year-on-year growth both in revenue and patients, with projected sales increasing 84% in 2022 to ~$430 million and the number of patients increasing by 133% to a projected 105,000 patients in 2022 (Q1 2022 vs Q1 2021; Fresh Leaf Analytics). Join an investor briefing with Wellnex Life CEO, George Karafotias, and Managing Director, Zack Bozinovski, next Wednesday 7th June at 12pm (AEST) to hear more on the acquisition and what it means for Wellnex Life. Click here to register. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.  Reach Corporate provides Corporate Advisory Services, including managing investor communications on behalf of Wellnex Life Limited and may receive fees for its services.

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