Sun Pharma Q4 Net Profit Rises 57 Per Cent to Rs 1,587 Crore

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, India's third-largest drugmaker by revenue, on Thursday reported a 57 per cent jump in fourth-quarter net profit, slightly above expectations, helped by higher sales in the United States, its largest market.

 

The company, which is in the process of acquiring loss-making rival Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, posted a net profit of Rs 1,587 crore ($269.55 million at $1 = 58.8750 rupees) in January-March, compared with Rs 1,012 crore a year earlier. 

 

Analysts on average expected Rs 1,574 crore, according to Thomson Reuters data.

 

Sales in January-March rose 32 per cent to Rs 4,044 crore. The company also said it expects a 13 to 15 per cent growth in sales in full-year 2015.

 

Sun Pharma, a bellwether in India's $15-billion pharmaceutical industry, agreed in April to buy Ranbaxy from Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Ltd for $3.2 billion, creating the world's fifth-largest maker of generic drugs.

 

The drugmaker, however, faces an uphill task in turning around Ranbaxy's business and fixing manufacturing quality issues that have resulted in several Ranbaxy plants being barred from exporting to the United States.

 

Sun Pharma is also working towards resolving quality control issues that got its Karkhadi, India, plant banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March.

 

The company's shares, which are up 4 per cent so far this year, ended 0.43 per cent higher on Thursday, while the Nifty was down 1.3 per cent.

 

Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2014