Torrent Pharma, a Rs. 5,800 crore plus pharma giant, has posted better financial performance during the fourth quarter ended March 2018 despite lower sales in US Its consolidated net profit increased by 10.7 per cent to Rs. 228 crore from Rs. 206 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. Its net sales increased by 21.7 per cent to Rs. 1,680 crore from Rs. 1,381 crore. EPS worked out to Rs. 13.55 as against Rs. 12.17 in the last period. The company recommended equity dividend of 100 per cent for the year 2017-18.
For the full year ended March 2018, Torrent’s consolidated net sales increased by only 2.9 per cent to Rs. 5,877 crore from Rs. 5,713 crore in the previous year. However, net profit declined by 27.4 per cent to Rs. 678 crore from Rs. 934 crore basically due to lower sales growth and higher interest burden. Interest cost went up by 49.5 per cent to Rs. 308 crore from Rs. 206 crore. Further tax provision increased to Rs. 253 crore from Rs. 154 crore. EPS declined to Rs. 40.07 from Rs. 55.17 in the last year.
Its domestic sales improved by 19 per cent to Rs. 2,351 crore from Rs. 1,976 crore, but sales in US declined by 18 per cent to Rs. 1,100 crore from Rs. 1,346 crore. Brazil sales remained almost same at previous level at Rs. 709 crore. However, it’s Germany sales improved by 12 per cent to Rs. 912 crore and that in other markets moved up by 9 per cent to Rs. 522 crore.