Abbott excels on power of brands, outpaces MNC peers on sales growth

The growth has come at a time when GST implementation affected most Indian pharma companies including Abbott's MNC peers

Abhineet Kumar  |  Mumbai 

Abbott

Abbott India, the listed subsidiary of the US-based giant, has outpaced its multinational peers to register a 14.6 per cent growth in sales to Rs 25.19 billion in nine months of the current financial. The growth has come at a time when implementation affected most Indian including Abbott’s peers. Some of their products have also been impacted by growing list of NLEM (National List of Essential Medicines) products. This saw UK based and the US-based report negative sales growth of respectively 2 per cent and 5.2 per cent in this period to Rs 21.47 billion and Rs 14.49 billion. “The growth of the Indian market (IPM) over the last 8 quarters has been continuously slowing. While GST, demonetization disrupted sales for 1-2 months, we believe the real reason for weak growth of 5.5 per cent in Dec 2017 was the absence of price-related growth over the last twelve months ended Dec 2017,” said Kartik Mehta, analyst with Dutsche Bank Market Research. The MAT growth (moving annual total) of IPM was low at 5.5 per cent in December 2017 than 10.4 per cent in MAT for a year ago period. While price related growth in this period has been negative at -4.2 per cent for NLEM against 1 per cent, that for Non-NLEM it has been 7 per cent against 12 per cent. As per AIOCD AWACS December’17 monthly data, 17 of Abbott’s brands are listed among the top 500 domestic products. “These brands contributed about 24 per cent to company’s revenues. Ten of these grew faster than the market growth rate of 7.8 per cent. We expect these ten brands to drive future growth,” said Ranjit Kapadia, an analyst with domestic brokerage Centrum. Its two brands Thyronorm has reported 43 per cent growth despite being under price control (NLEM). The company also distributes Novo Nordisk’s anti-diabetic range of products in India.

These products contributed about 16 per cent to the company’s revenues. Also 3 out of 6 Novo Nordisk products distributed, grew faster than the market growth rate of 7.8 per cent, indicating a strong image. Human Mixtard is the largest selling insulin in the domestic market which grew by 8.6 per cent against the industry growth of 7.8 per cent. As the insulin brands are under price control and the company distributes these products in the domestic market, sales growth is recorded at the back of higher volume. The company receives a distribution margin from Novo Nordisk. The company also started its new vaccine division and launched four new vaccines during 2015-16. It has entered into strategic tie-ups with Bharat Biotech for supplying these vaccines. It is also looking for partnership and alliances for other vaccines as it intends to become No 3 player in this segment. “We expect the vaccines to drive future growth due to limited competition and wider usage,” said Kapadia.
Rs Billion Net Sales Net Profit
Co_Name Group 201606 201609 201612 201706 201709 201712 201606 201609 201612 201706 201709 201712
Abbott India Asc-Abbott 7.47 7.21 7.29 8.81 9.31 7.06 0.86 0.75 0.74 1.15 1.38 0.48
Glaxosmi. Pharma Asc-Glaxo 7.06 7.99 6.85 7.04 8.36 6.07 0.53 0.99 0.72 0.9 1.3 0.26
Sanofi India* Associate 5.78 5.97 5.56 6.27 0.86 0.83 0.74 1.16
Pfizer Associate 4.91 5.36 5.01 4.57 5.71 4.21 0.62 1.26 0.8 0.87 1.11 0.57
Merck* Associate 2.61 2.63 2.59 3.06 0.23 0.29 0.2 0.32
Novartis India Associate 1.64 1.75 1.71 1.56 1.68 1.15 0.13 0.22 0.19 0.19 0.26 0.07
Astrazeneca Phar Associate 1.5 1.38 1.4 1.29 1.64 1.27 0.16 0.01 0.13 -0.1 0.27 0.06
Net Sales Net Profit
Rs Billion 9 Months 9 Months
Co_Name Group FY2017 FY2018 % Chg FY2017 FY2018 % Chg
Abbott India Asc-Abbott 21.97 25.19 14.64 2.35 3.01 28.38
Glaxosmi. Pharma Asc-Glaxo 21.91 21.47 -1.98 2.24 2.46 9.98
Sanofi India* Associate 17.63 17.75 0.68 2.54 2.85 12.2
Pfizer Associate 15.28 14.49 -5.21 2.69 2.56 -4.9
Merck* Associate 7.86 8.48 7.89 0.78 0.78 0
Novartis India Associate 5.11 4.39 -14.13 0.54 0.52 -4.46
Astrazeneca Phar Associate 4.28 4.2 -1.8 0.3 0.23 -22.9
*Sanofi India & Merck results are 6 months converted into 9 months Source: Capitaline Compiled by BS Research Bureau

First Published: Fri, February 23 2018. 01:17 IST
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU