Indian pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (Ranbaxy) reported a rise of 7 % in its consolidated net profit in the first-quarter of FY09 since the same quarter previous year in rupee terms.
The company announced a consolidated net profit of Rs 153 crore for the quarter ended March 31 as against Rs 143 crore in the same quarter last year.Sales rose to Rs1623 crore in Q1 this year from Rs1564 crore a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
In terms of dollars, the pharma company reported a rise of 19 % in net profit to touch $ 39 million in the first quarter of 2008, from $ 32 million in the same quarter last year.
Sales of the company registered a 15 % increase to touch $ 409 million in the first quarter this year as against $ 355 million in Q1 last year. ” The first quarter usually performs the weakest in terms of revenue,” said Malvinder Mohan Singh, CEO, Ranbaxy in a press conference. Ranbaxy’s profit was propped up by the separation of its new drug research unit, which helped reduce costs.
Higher sales in the Gurgaon, Haryana-based company’s key markets including the US and India were weighed down by a 798 million rupee foreign currency loss in the quarter.
“The second half of the year would be better for the company,” said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, an analyst with Angel Broking Ltd. in Mumbai, who had estimated profit at Rs 152 crore. Ranbaxy “is in line to meet its target for the year.” Nangra has an “accumulate” rating on the stock. Ranbaxy’s profit excluded the Rs 20.5 crore it spent on new drug research after it decided to turn the research unit into a separate company.
Earnings will get a boost when it starts selling a so-called authoriSed generic of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Imitrex drug for migraines in the US likely in December after settling a patent dispute with Europe’s largest drugmaker, Nangra. Imitrex and Imigran had sales of 558 million pounds ($1.1 billion) in the US last year.
Ranbaxy dropped Rs 11.85 or 2.4%, to Rs 487.55 at the 3:30 pm local time close on the Bombay Stock Exchange after falling as much as 4.7% earlier.
The stock is the best performer on the exchange’s benchmark 30-stock BSE Sensex this year.
