Wockhardt, a Rs.4,000 crore pharma major, has received another setback during the third quarter and nine months period ended December 2017. Though it succeeded in reducing its consolidated net loss to Rs.40.76 crore during the third quarter from Rs.63.91 crore in the corresponding period of last year, its net sales remained almost stagnant at Rs.1,005 crore as against Rs.995.56 crore. The foreign exchange gain was at Rs.1.28 crore as compared to loss of Rs.17.17 crore in the previous period. EPS is still negative at Rs.3.69 as compared to Rs.4.89 in the last period.
With poor profitability and stagnant sales, Wockhardt scrip opened lower at Rs.899 as against previous day's close of Rs.909 on BSE. The scrip declined further by Rs.57.95 or over 6 per cent to Rs.851.05.
Its domestic sales improved by 10 per cent and it launched three products during the quarter under review. Its sales in emerging market increased by 26 per cent and UK business grew by 6 per cent and it launched one new product in UK. Its US business stands at 17 per cent of the global revenues and grew by 10 per cent on account of launch of new products. The Irish business grew 16 per cent in Euro terms. Its international business contribute 61 per cent of the total revenues.
Its R&D expenditure declined to Rs.61 crore from Rs.77 crore during December quarter. It continued pursuit in creating strong intellectual property (IP) base resulted into filing of 71 patents, taking the cumulative filings to 3,026. It was granted 30 patents during quarter and now totally holds 614 patents. Wockhardt received one new approval of ANDA.
For the nine months ended December 2017, Wockhardt's consolidated net sales declined by 7.4 per cent to Rs.2,919 crore from Rs.3,151 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net loss went up sharply to Rs.454 crore from Rs.21 crore mainly due to exceptional loss of Rs.358.19 crore. It registered forex gain of Rs.33 crore as against a loss of Rs.26 crore. Its finance costs increased by 14.5 per cent to Rs.190.52 crore from Rs.166.37 crore. EPS worked out to negative Rs.41.04 as compared to negative Rs.1.90 in the similar period of last year. Its R&D expenditure during the nine months period declined to Rs.210 crore from Rs.307 crore. Its US business stands at 17 per cent of the global revenues. The Irish business grew by 9 per cent in Euro terms and emerging market business grew by 10 per cent.
Wockhardt still under pressure, net loss, 41 crore, q3
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