Biocon Q2 net beats estimates, shares rise

Biocon, India's top listed biotech firm, beat expectations with a 4.7 percent rise in quarterly net profit, sending its shares up over 3 percent on Wednesday.

The Bangalore-based company said consolidated net profit rose to Rs 90 crore in the fiscal second quarter ended September from Rs 86 crore a year earlier. Revenue rose 19.3 percent to Rs 642 crore.

Analysts, on an average, had estimated net profit at Rs 86.37 crore, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Biocon also said GE Capital Corp would pick up a 7.7 percent stake in the Indian drugmaker's research services unit Syngene for Rs 125 crore.

"This (investment) takes us closer to our commitment of taking Syngene through an IPO (initial public offer) at the most opportune time," Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in a statement.

The drugmaker announced positive results from the global phase-III trials of its recombinant human insulin for type-1 diabetes mellitus patients.

Valued at USD 958.58 million, shares in Biocon were up 1.4 percent as of 11:39 a.m.