Piramal Enterprises, a Rs.6,500 crore plus well diversified company engaged in healthcare, healthcare information management and financial services, has posted strong growth in bottom line and top line during the third quarter ended December 2016. Its consolidated net profit increased by 31.6 per cent to Rs.404 crore from Rs.307 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. The net sales also moved up by 30.4 per cent to Rs.2,314 crore from Rs.1,775 crore. EPS surged to Rs.23.42 from Rs.17.79 in the last period.

Pharmaceutical division's net sales increased by 8.3 per cent to Rs.976 crore during the third quarter ended December 2016 from Rs.901 crore in the similar period of last year. Pharma sales contributed 41 per cent to its total sales. The growth in pharma sales was driven by addition of new products, growth in regulated markets and strong performance in North America due to higher volumes of Sevoflurane and Isoflurane. Its revenue from India consumer products business increased by 28 per cent to Rs.85 crore despite demonetisation.

The sales from financial services went up sharply by 95.9 per cent to Rs.902 crore from Rs.461 crore, with contributions of 38 per cent to its total sales. Further, the revenues from information management went up by 9.2 per cent to Rs.464 crore from Rs.425 crore, and contribution from this segment worked out to around 21 per cent.

Ajay Piramal, chairman, said, “We are pleased to announce that Piramal Enterprises has delivered superior growth and profitability performance for Q3 and 9M FY 2017. In line with our strategic roadmap, this quarter witnessed new acquisitions, foray into new business segments and robust performance across existing businesses. We remain committed to our overall business strategy of efficiently allocating capital towards growing both organically and inorganically, to consistently create long-term value for our shareholders.”

The company's R&D expenditure declined by over 43 per cent to Rs.21 crore from Rs.37 crore. Piramal's Global Phama business acquired a portfolio of intrathecal spasticity and pain management drugs from Mallinckrodt LLC during January 2016. It acquired a portfolio of five injectable anaesthesia & pain management products from Janssen in October 2016.

Its interest cost went up sharply by 130 per cent to Rs.591 crore from Rs.257 crore in the same period of last year mainly due to increase in debt for making investments under Financial Services business and partly for the acquisitions carried out in Pharma business. Further its net tax provision increased to Rs.76 crore from Rs.10 crore.

For the nine months period ended December 2016, Piramals consolidated net sales increased by 29.1 per cent to Rs.6,011 crore from Rs.4,658 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net profit went up by 32.2 per cent to Rs.941 crore from Rs.712 crore. EPS moved up to Rs.54.55 from Rs.41.24. Its pharma sales increased only by 5.6 per cent to Rs.2,679 crore from Rs.2,538 crore and that of financial services by 97.4 per cent to Rs.2,352 crore from Rs.1,192 crore. The sales of information management segment increased only by 5.1 per cent to Rs.995 crore.