Ajanta Pharma, a Rs.1,000 crore Mumbai based pharma major, has posted impressive performance during the third quarter ended December 2014 with new launches. Its net profit has taken a quantum jump of 35.7 per cent to Rs.84.71 crore from Rs.62.42 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales also went up by 21.8 per cent to Rs.356.28 crore from Rs.292.59 crore. With strong growth in bottomline, its EPS improved to Rs.24.08 from Rs.17.75. Exports contributed 61 per cent of the revenue for the December quarter.
The Board of Directors has approved sub-division of nominal value of equity shares of the company from Rs.5/- each to nominal value of Rs.2/- each. With strong performance and announcement of sub-division, Ajanta Pharma scrip improved by 11 per cent or over Rs.264 in the afternoon session on BSE to Rs.2660.
Rajesh Agrawal, joint managing director, says, “We are pleased with the results of yet another sound quarter. All our growth drivers are performing as per our plans and expectations. We continue to post above industry growth in India and emerging markets in our branded generic business segment. Our Dahej formulation facility (oral solids) implementation has been completed and is undergoing qualification. We expect to take regulatory filing batches from Q1 of FY'16 onwards. Addition of this facility will ensure that we have adequate capacities to cater to our growths in coming years.”
For the nine months ended December 2014, Ajanta's net sales increased by 24.3 per cent to Rs.968 crore from Rs.779 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net profit went up sharply by 47.3 per cent to Rs.222 crore from Rs 151 crore. EBDITA moved up by 42 per cent to Rs.332 crore. EPS worked out to Rs 63.13 as against Rs.42.89 in the last period. Exports contributed 61 per cent of total operating income for the nine months.
Its Indian sales improved by 33 per cent to Rs.321 crore in the first nine months of current year. The company posted strong growth in three major therapeutic segment viz., cardiology, ophthalmology and dermatology of 35 per cent, 30 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. Its sales in emerging market grew by 23 per cent to Rs.599 crore. Africa contributed Rs 314 crore, Asia Rs.275 crore and Latin America Rs.10 crore. Ajanta launched 8 new products in emerging markets.
The company incurred R&D expenditure of Rs.41 crore as compared to Rs.39 crore in the last period. Its state of the art R&D center for formulation development is located at Mumbai. Ajanta continues to gain market share for its product in the US market. Currently it has 23 ANDAs awaiting approval from US FDA and it has a pipeline of about 1,700 products under registration paving the way for sustained growth in these markets.