Laurus Labs, a Rs.1,900 crore plus Hyderabad based pharma major, has suffered a setback during the third quarter ended December 2017 and its consolidated net profit declined by 22.5 per cent to Rs.34.87 crore from Rs.45.02 crore in the same period of last year. EBIDTA declined by 13.4 per cent toRs.97.29 crore from Rs.112.31 crore. Its net sales also declined by 6 per cent to Rs.478.93 crore from Rs.509.73 crore. Other income declined to Rs.9.94 crore from Rs.12.97 crore. EPS worked out to Rs.3.29 crore as against Rs.4.50 in the last period.
Laurus scrip opened lower at Rs.520 and then declined further to Rs.515 from its previous day's close of Rs.538.65 on BSE.
The company acquired the existing assets and liabilities of an API unit located at Visakhapatnam of Sriam Labs Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, during the quarter under review during December 2017 and included the results of acquired business in the quarter.
Commenting on the results, Dr Satyanarayana Chava, CEO, said, “During the quarter we have displayed enhanced performance in our Synthesis division, led by commencement in supplies from Unit 5 to Aspen. Generic API portfolio reported a marginal decline in growth due to lower contribution from Hep C, but oncology and other APIs showing a robust growth. Overall an expanding product portfolio and unrelenting focus on cost efficiencies have led to better margins. I am confident that we well continue to maintain our leadership position in ARV API's as we see plenty of growth opportunities on offer in developed markets and with introduction of second line therapies. The Synthesis and FDF businesses will see full potential in the coming years as we expect to ramp up operations with our recent investments. We have received EIR from US FDA for Units 1&3 reflecting our commitment to quality.”
For the nine months period ended December 2017, Lalurus' consolidated net sales increased by 3.9 per cent to Rs.1,509 crore from Rs.1,452 crore in the similar period of last year and its net profit moved up by only 3 per cent to Rs.122.53 crore from Rs.118.94 crore. EBIDTA declined by 3.7 per cent toRs.269.75 crore from Rs.280.17 crore. It has successfully reduced its financial cost to Rs.56 crore from Rs.83.44 crore.
Its R&D expenditure amounted to Rs.75.4 crore and worked out to 5.1 percentage of sales. The company inaugurated Unit IV during November 2017. It filed 219 patent applications and 50 patent granted so far. Further, it filed 8 ANDAs with US FDA, one dossier in Canada, two dossiers in Europe, one dossier with WHO and one dossier in South Africa. It completed validations for 20 products.
Laurus labs net dips, q3, 35 crore
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