Granules India, a leading pharmaceutical formulation intermediates company, achieved impressive performance during the second quarter ended December 2006. Its net profit went up by 37.4 per cent to Rs 3.045 crore from Rs 2.22 crore in the same period of last year. The net sales touched to Rs 50.21 crore from Rs 44.44 crore, registering a growth of almost 13 per cent. The operating profit before interest, depreciation and taxation worked out to Rs 8.31 crore as compared o Rs 6.21 crore in the last period. The EPS improved to Rs 2.46 from Rs 1.80.

For the first half ended December 2006, Granules' net sales amounted to Rs 95.60 crore as against Rs 84.27 crore, a growth of 13.4 per cent. Its net profit increased by 20.7 per cent to Rs 5.08 crore from Rs 4.21 crore with half yearly EPS of Rs 4.10 as compared to Rs 3.42 in the last period.

Highlighting the performance, Krishna Prasad, managing director, said, "Our additional investments towards the international markets are paying off. Revenues from the EU registered a 122 per cent on quarter to quarter basis growth and hose from the Asia-Pacific region grew at 153 per cent during this period."

Metformin API and PFI's have contributed to a large extent for the growth. We expect the remainder of the year to showcase even better performance in sales, he added. During the quarter under review Granules signed a MoU with Hubei Biocause Heilen Pharmaceutical Company (Biocause) of China. Granules acquired a 50 per cent stake in the company to manufacture and sell APIs starting with Ibuprofen. Biocause is one the biggest ibuprofen manufacturers and exporters in the world.

During December 2006, PharmaMatch B V and Granules signed a MoU to develop, manufacture and market formulations in the European market jointly. This arrangement kicked-off with the transfer of existing marketing authorizations by PharmaMatch to Granules for products like Paracetamol where Granules has the basic and the necessary skill sets to deliver the same.

In January 2007, it signed its first Master Services Agreement with GSK Consumer healthcare R&D for product development.