Granules India, a Rs.1,000 crore plus Hyderabad based pharma major, has posted strong growth in sales and profit during the first quarter ended June 2014. Its consolidated net profit went up sharply by 55.7 per cent to Rs.22.87 crore from Rs.14.69 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Earnings before depreciation, interest, taxation and adjustments touched to Rs.53.23 crore as against Rs.31.57 crore, a strong growth of 68.6 per cent. Its consolidated net sales also moved up 36.2 per cent to Rs.311 crore from Rs.228 crore.

With impressive jump in profits, its EPS improved to Rs.11.27 from Rs.7.30 in the last period. Granules scrip went up sharply by 1.7 per cent after the announcement of financial performance and touched to Rs.643 on BSE. The scrip touched to 52-weeks highest level at Rs.705 on July 22, 2014.

The consolidated numbers include performance from Auctus, an API manufacturer acquired in February 2014. Auctus contributed Rs.26.1 crore during the quarter with an EBDITA of Rs.2.2 crore and a net loss of Rs.2.8 crore.

Krishna Prasad, managing director, said, “We are pleased to see our concentrated effort on improving margins through manufacturing efficiencies and process innovation continuing to bear fruit. In addition to the strong performance from the standalone operations, we are seeing positive improvements at Auftus. The team is receiving positive responses from customers and we anticipate the performance at Auctus to start ramping up in the second half of the financial year.”

During the quarter, the company's Bonthapally API facility successfully completed a US FDA inspection and was certified ISO 14001 for environmental management systems as well s OHSAS 18001 for Occupational Health Safety Systems. In addition, the Jeedimetla API facility was inspected by EDQM.

On standalone basis, Granules' standalone net sales increased by 21.4 per cent during the quarter under review to Rs.253.45 crore and it earned a standalone net profit of Rs.22.35 crore as against Rs.14.73 crore.