Cipla, the fourth largest Indian pharmaceutical company with net sales of Rs.14,280 crore, has posted impressive growth in profits during the first quarter ended June 2017. Its consolidated net profit increased by 21 per cent to Rs.409 crore from Rs.339 crore despite lower sales by 3.5 per cent to Rs.3,432 crore as against Rs.3,556 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its other operating income went up to Rs.151 crore from Rs.25 crore. Its EBIDTA also moved up by 6 per cent to Rs.646 crore from Rs.611 crore. With improvement in profits, EPS surged to Rs.5.08 from Rs.4.22 in the last period.
The net sales from pharmaceutical segment declined to Rs.3,505 crore from Rs.3,631 crore during the quarter under review. However, sales from new ventures increased to Rs.27 crore from Rs.20 crore. Its Indian revenues declined by 13 per cent to Rs.1,271 crore from Rs.1,459 crore and that in North America declined by 2 per cent to Rs.646 crore from Rs.657 crore. However, its sales in South Africa increased by 21 per cent to Rs.488 crore from Rs.403 crore and also in Europe went up by 33 per cent to Rs.158 crore from Rs.118 crore. The sales in emerging markets declined by 4 per cent to RS 731 crore from Rs.759 crore. Its APIs sales remained flat at Rs.130 crore.
Its R&D investment reached at Rs.212 crore. The company launched four new products in the US and filed 3 new ANDAs during the quarter. It is planning to file 25 more products in the full year.
Umang Vohra, managing director and Global CEO, said, “Despite the impact of GST on India business, we had a very healthy quarter from an operation perspective. The quarter saw EBIDTA margins expanding to over 18 per cent driven by strong focus on enhancing operational efficiency and control on spends. We are strengthening our presence in Chronic segments with the launch of Prominad and Vysov in the diabetology segment in India and launch of our flagship product – FSPM in Australia, reinforcing our ongoing respiratory franchise expansion across developed markets. We are on target to ramp-up our launch trajectory in the US.”
After the announcement, Cipla share declined by Rs.8.15 on BSE to Rs.540.75. The company's standalone net sales declined by 3.4 per cent to Rs.2,605 crore and net profit by 7.2 per cent to Rs.259 crore.