JOHANNESBURG, Sept 9 (Reuters) - South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare's APNJ.J full-year profit growth slowed to 13 percent, weighed down by currency volatility, the company said on Wednesday.
Aspen, which supplies drugs to about 150 countries, including the United States, Australia and most of Latin America, said diluted headline earnings per share was 1,149.7 cents to end-June from 1,016.1 cents the year earlier.
Headline EPS is the most widely watched profit measure in South Africa and strips out certain one-off items.
The company has grown rapidly after expanding outside its highly regulated home market, increasing profits by more than 25 percent each year since 2012.
"The group remains exposed to the strength of the U.S. dollar against its primary trading currencies," Aspen said in a statement.
The company imports many of its drug-making ingredients and pays using the euro, South Africa's rand and the Australian dollar, meaning that a stronger U.S. dollar erodes its earnings.
The rand and the Australian dollar have both lost more than 13 percent against the greenback so far this year, while the euro has weakened by about 8 percent.
Aspen's shares were up 2.93 percent to 335.50 rand by 1155 GMT, against a 1.25 percent gain by the JSE's benchmark Top-40 index.