Indian pharma major Cipla on October 27 reported a 43.3 percent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,131 crore for the July-September quarter of the current financial year, beating estimates.
The company reported a profit of Rs 789 crore in the same period last year.
Revenue came in at Rs 6,678 crore, up 14.6 percent from the year-ago quarter numbers of Rs 5828.5 crore. This was its highest-ever quarterly revenue according to the drugmaker.
A poll of 10 brokerages collated by Moneycontrol had pegged net profit at Rs 981.2 crore and revenue at Rs 6,475.7 crore.
The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were at Rs 1,734 crore, up from Rs 1,302 crore in the year-ago period. The EBITDA margin was at 26 percent against 22.2 percent in the year-ago period.
“Pleased to share an exceptional set of results reflecting the strength of our core business across key markets of India, North America and South Africa. We reported our highest ever quarterly revenue with EBITDA margins scaling up to 26 percent," MD & Global CEO Umang Vohra said in a statement.
He added that the company's "pipeline of new products is progressing really well with key milestones achieved in respiratory and Peptide assets. We will continue our focus on driving profitable growth across businesses”.
The company's One-India Revenue was up 10 percent YoY, driven by strong execution across branded prescription and trade generics businesses.
The company said its branded prescriptions outpaced market growth, even while seasonal trends impacted the consumer business for the quarter.
In the trade generics sales in India, margins were aided by declining raw material costs.
In the North America business, quarterly revenue scaled to $229 million driven by a 28 percent YoY growth and QoQ growth of 3 percent. The strong momentum continued with key milestones achieved across multiple pipeline assets, the company said.
In the South African business, the private market grew at 12 percent YoY in local currency terms on back of robust performance in prescription and OTC (over the counter) sgements.
The company spent Rs 379 crore on Research and Development (R&D) in the quarter, amounting to 5.7 percent of the sales. Cipla reported a net cash position of Rs 5,850 crore for the quarter.
Cipla has been in the news on speculation of the promoter group — the Hamied family — selling its stake. It began when reports of private equity firm Blackstone proposing to acquire a 33.46 percent stake in the Hamied family's business for $3.8 billion surfaced. Bloomberg recently reported that Torrent Pharmaceuticals has lined up at least $5 billion for a stake in Cipla.
The stock gained on better-than-expected earnings. At 2.04 pm, Cipla was trading 3.1 percent higher at Rs 1,186 on the NSE.
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