Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, a Rs 1980 crore plus pharma giant from Mumbai, has posted significant fall in bottom line as well as top line during the third quarter ended December 2008 mainly due to higher interest burden and employees costs. Further, there was out-licensing revenue of Rs 179.29 crore received in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The company's consolidated net profit declined sharply by 70.9 per cent to Rs 81.43 crore from Rs 280.02 crore in the corresponding period of last year on account of higher interest cost, which went up by around 96 per cent to Rs 34.31 crore from Rs 17.52 crore. Glenmark's consolidated net sales declined by 14.4 per cent to Rs 581.39 crore from Rs 679.39 crore. With significant fall in profits, the earning per share nosedived to Rs 3.25 from Rs 11.42 in the last period.

After the announcement of poor performance for the quarter and first nine months of 2008-09, Glenmark scrip drifted down and touched to its 52-weeks lowest level at Rs 183.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. As at the close of the trading, the scrip declined by Rs 14.65 from its previous close to Rs 188.15 on January 27, 2009.

Revenue for the generics business was at Rs 278.23 crore as against 267.84 crore in the similar period of last year. Its speciality formulation business moved up by 30.5 per cent to Rs 303.16 crore from Rs 232.26 crore. Sales for the formulation business in India increased to Rs 156.84 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 115.70 crore in the same period of last year, representing a growth of 35.6 per cent. Glenmark has launched four new products.

Glenmark Generics Inc, USA posted revenue of Rs 210 crore during the quarter ended December 2008 as against Rs 204 crore in the same period of last year. The company now has 37 generic products for the US market and has over 40 ANDAs in various stagest of the approval process with the US FDA.

Revenue from Africa, Asia and CIS region was Rs 83.34 crore as against Rs 52.17 crore, a growth of 59.8 per cent. In the CIS region, the Russian subsidiary continues to register good growth. It is also focusing on building the business in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Africa region has registered satisfactory secondary sales growth with Nigeria being the primary growth driver. The company strengthen its operations in Poland, Romania, Czech and Slovakia. Its revenues in Europe went up by 55.6 per cent to Rs 19.28 crore during the October-December 2008 quarter.

The company's consolidated net sales for the first nine months ended December 2008 improved by 14 per cent to Rs 1,602 crore from Rs 1,406 crore in the similar period of last year. However, its net profit declined by 23.8 per cent to Rs 314.17 crore from Rs 412.30 crore. The interest burden increased by 43.7 per cent to Rs 68.53 crore from Rs 47.68 crore and its employees cost went up by almost 48 per cent to Rs 237.66 crore from R s 160.64 crore.