Aurobindo Phamaceuticals Ltd, the market leader in semi-synthetic penicillins and manufacturers of bulk drugs and formulations, reported 41.12 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 20.52 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2002, from Rs 14.54 crore in the same period last year. The profit before tax for the period stood at Rs 29.13 crore from Rs 17.07 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The total income rose to Rs 308. 32 crore from Rs 255.44 crore in the same period last year, recording a rise of 20.70 per cent, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday. Aurobindo recorded a net profit of Rs 15.09 crore in the first quarter of this year on a total income of Rs 250.42 crore. The total income registered a growth of 32 per cent over the first quarter income of Rs 189.96 crore.

Aurobindo is in the process of a massive upgradation of its facilities, besides setting up a new bulk drug unit at Pydibhimavaram, near Visakhapatnam, at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore. The total revamping exercise, involving the upgradation of two manufacturing plants in Hyderabad, the Pydibhimavaram project and its subsidiaries in China and Brazil, is estimated to cost over Rs 150 crore. The company was also setting up a manufacturing unit in the United States, in a joint venture. The plant is expected to be commissioned in the year 2003. The company's bulk drugs unit is also expected to go on stream in the October-December quarter.

P V Rama Prasad Reddy, Chairman of Aurobindo, had told the company's AGM on September 27 that the upgradation process was nearing completion and its benefits would begin to show up only from the third quarter of 2002-03. In spite of that the company had performed well in the second quarter.