Ajanta Pharma, a Rs. 1,079 crore Mumbai based pharma major, has posted strong growth in net profit of 80.5 per cent to Rs. 58.72 crore during the first quarter ended June 2014 from Rs. 32.54 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its net also moved up by 30.4 per cent to Rs. 280.79 crore from Rs. 215.39 crore. With hefty jump in profits, its EPS improved to Rs. 16.70 from Rs. 9.26. Its equity capital increased to Rs. 17.68 crore from Rs. 11.81 crore in the last period due to bonus issue.
However, after announcement of financial performance, Ajanta scrip declined sharply by Rs. 150 on BSE to Rs. 1590.85. The scrip touched to its highest level at Rs. 1798.45 in the morning session as compared to its opening price of Rs. 1750.25. However, the scrip movements remained volatile during the day as it declined sharply to Rs. 1525 at one point basically due to lower sales and profit on quarter to quarter basis. During the March ended quarter, its net sales were at Rs. 301.14 crore and net profit was at Rs. 70.09 crore which is substantial higher that the June quarter figures.
Yogesh M Agrawal, managing director, said, “The new financial year has begun on a positive note for us. The Q1 performance reflects our ability to deliver consistent results by maintaining our focus on select therapeutic specialities and geographies. Over the decade while growing sales, we have put significant emphasis in improving our margins which is reflected in our results. We continue to take actions on everyday basis to lay foundation for future.”
The company's sales in India improved by 24 per cent to Rs. 119 crore during the quarter ended June 2014 and its institution sales was Rs. 10 crore, which declined by 37 per cent. Its sales of dermatology products increased by 35 per cent, cardiology products by 42 per cent and opthalmology products by 25 per cent. It launched 9 new products, of which 5 were first to market.
Ajanta's sales in emerging market improved by 34 per cent to Rs. 160 crore. Its sales in Africa improved by 42 per cent to Rs. 92 crore, Asia by 26 per cent to Rs. 65 crore and that in Latin America improved by 8 per cent to Rs. 3 crore. It launched 14 new products in the emerging markets and has a pipeline of about 1,600 products under registration to ensure continued growth.
The company re-launched its first product in USA through is own front-end team and planning to launched 2-3 new products after approvals in the current year. It filed 2 more ANDAs with US FDA taking total tally to 25 ANDAs. The company incurred R&D expenditure of Rs. 11 crore and filed 203 registration dossiers in the emerging markets during the quarter under review.