Strong growth in domestic and US markets helped India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries report a net profit of Rs 1,444 crore in the first quarter of this financial year.
In the same period a year ago, the company had posted a net loss of Rs 1,655 crore owing to a drop in revenue and exceptional expenses.
Revenue from operations in the first quarter rose 29 per cent year-on-year and 14 per cent on a sequential basis to Rs 9,669 crore. Domestic business, which accounted for 34 per cent of the total turnover, rose 39 per cent and US business grew 35 per cent over the same period last year led by sales of specialty products. Covid-19 products accounted for 8-10 per cent of India sales.
Though the growth was higher owing to low base of last year, overall this was the best sales performance of the company since March-end quarter calendar year 2015.
All the main areas reported growth, except the active pharmaceutical ingredients segment, which saw a 7 per cent decline in sales.
Sun Pharma’s first-quarter performance beat the Street estimates on revenue and earnings before interest tax depreciation parameters, while its net profit was in line with the estimate. Its stock gained 10 per cent and closed at Rs 774 on the BSE on Friday. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had estimated Q1FY22 revenue of Rs 8,793 crore and Ebitda of Rs 2,114 crore. Its reported Ebitda of Rs 2,771 crore was 59 per cent higher over the first quarter of last year resulting in margins of 28.7 per cent.
In a statement, Sun Pharma Chairman Dilip Shanghvi said: “Our India business continues to do well while our global specialty revenues have grown over Q4. We are happy with (plaque psoriasis drug) Ilumya’s performance, which has grown both YoY and sequentially.”
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