The company's performance in the quarter to December 2000 only reinforces its grip on the motorcycle segment. It sold 2.75 lakh motorbikes (1.98 lakh units) a rise of 39 per cent during the quarter. With this, the company has sold 7.54 lakh bikes during the nine-month period Apr-Dec 2000. HMM is well poised to achieve its sales target of 1 million bikes during the current fiscal.

Growth in volumes has enabled the company to notch up a 44 per cent rise in the topline to Rs 849 crore up from Rs 589 crore. The growth looks even better if Apr-Dec 2000 nine month period is taken into account. The sales have grown by 48 per cent to Rs 2,317 crore up from Rs 1,568 crore during the period. Expenditure has risen by 43 per cent. Despite a 53 per cent jump in the operating profits, the operating profit margin has not seen any significant appreciation.

Being a low debt company, interest costs have been negligible and are down. That has helped cash profits to leapfrog by 51 per cent during the quarter and 50 per cent during the nine month period. Net profit has gone up a whopping 45 per cent to Rs 70.2 crore from Rs 48.5 crore. Net profit margin has marginally gone up to 8.4 per cent.

Competition in the motorbike segment has been revving up lately. What with the launch of the `Eliminator' from Kawasaki-Bajaj besides bikes from Kinetic Motors and LML. The company is set to launch a couple of models to counter competition. However, the flurry of models in the 100cc segment is bound to slow down HHM in the coming quarters. Recently the company split its equity share of Rs 10 into five equity shares of Rs 2 each. This should improve the liquidity on the counter and perk up investor sentiment further.

Sun Pharmaceuticals
Sun Pharmaceuticals has introduced many brands during the last couple of years, besides posting increasing sales and profits. The company has made rapid progress in bulk drugs as well as formulations.

During the quarter to December, 2000 sales grew by 40 per cent to Rs 158 crore including those of Sun Pharma Export. Therefore, consolidated results are not strictly comparable. Sun Pharma is more dependent on domestic sales that account for 82 per cent of total sales. Domestic sales grew by 36 per cent to 129.66 crore. Formulations contributes a large share of the domestic sales and are almost five times that of the sales of bulk actives.

Export sales grew by 68 per cent to 28.17 crore thanks to sales of Sun Pharma Export. Bulk actives account for a major share. Strict regulatory norms in different make it difficult for the company to introduce new formulations in those countries. Total expenses grew by 37 per cent to Rs 118.46 crore. Operating profit increased by 52 per cent to Rs 39.37 crore. Consequently, operating profit margin also improved to 25 per cent. Net profit jumped by 49 per cent to Rs 34.07 crore.

Sun Pharma has emerged as sixth largest formulation company in India. Formulations sales are growing at the fastest rate of 31.6 per cent per annum. The company has six brands in the prestigious list of top 300 brands. Sales during nine months to December 2000 increased by 37 per cent to Rs 449.85 crore. Net profit increased by 58 per cent to Rs 103.59 crore.Sun Pharma is well diversified in various therapeutic segments. It does not have significant presence in antibiotics. The largest contribution in sales comes from cardiology and diabetology segment. Second major contribution comes from psychiatry segment. Other three major contributors to sales are neurology, gastro intestinal segment and orthopedics and pain segment. Sachchidanand Shukla & Dhruv Rathi