The foreign exchange loss and significant rise in employees cost put pressure on bottom line of Cipla during the second quarter ended September 2008. Its net profit declined by 20.6 per cent to Rs 151.43 crore from Rs 190.62 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company incurred a foreign exchange loss of Rs 104.50 crore as against a gain of Rs 19.96 crore in the last period. Similarly, its employee cost went up by 48.7 per cent to Rs 78.64 crore from Rs 52.90 crore.

The company’s net sales increased by 25.4 per cent to Rs 1302 crore from Rs 1037 crore in quarter ended September 2007. Its domestic sales reached at Rs 591 crore from Rs 509 crore. The export sales improved smartly by 32. 6 per cent to Rs 726.37 crore from Rs 547.63 crore. Exports as per cent of sales improved to 55.1 per cent as compared to 51.8 per cent in the last period. Its formulations exports increased by 48.4 per cent to Rs 602 crore from Rs 406 crore. However, its APIs exports declined by 12.5 per cent to Rs 124 crore from Rs 142 crore.

For the first half ended September 2008, Cipla’s net profit declined by 6.1 per cent to Rs 291.47 crore from Rs 310.38 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net sales moved up by 28.9 per cent to Rs 2473 crore from Rs 1918 crore. The earning per share for the first half worked out to Rs 3.75 as against Rs 3.99. Its exports increased by 39.8 per cent to Rs 1328 crore from Rs 950 crore. Exports contributed around 53 per cent to sales as compared to 48.3 per cent in the similar period of last year. Formulations exports increased by 41 per cent and APIs exports went up by 35 per cent during the first half of 2008-09.