Ranbaxy Laboratories, a leading pharmaceutical company in India with net sales of Rs.12,252 crore, has suffered heavy setback during the third quarter ended September 2013 due to lower sales in US and Europe. The company posted consolidated net loss of Rs.454.17 crore as against a net profit of Rs.754.17 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its consolidated net sales, however, improved marginally by 3.1 per cent to Rs.2750 crore from Rs.2,669 crore. EPS worked out to negative Rs.10.74 as against positive Rs.17.87 in the last period.

Ranbaxy scrip closed at Rs.385.65 today on BSE as against previous day's close of Rs.388.85. The company has decided to change the financial year from January-December to April-March effective April 01, 2014. In view of this, the current financial year will be for a period of 15 months i.e. January, 2013 to March, 2014.

Its branded and OTC category contributed Rs.1470 crore, accounting for 53 per cent of total sales during the quarter. Generic including API category recorded sales of Rs.1,280 crore. Its sales in North America declined to Rs.880 crore due to large contribution to sales from exclusivity opportunities in the earlier quarter. Its sales in West Europe declined sharply by 31 per cent to Rs.200 crore.

However, its sales in East Europe & CIS increased by 24 per cent to Rs.480 crore. Its domestic sales impacted by pricing policy and trade related supply disruptions and amounted to Rs.570 crore. OTC business improved by 7 per cent to Rs.110 crore.

The company received an 'import alert' on September 16, 2013 from US FDA on one of its manufacturing unit located in Mohali. Due to Mohali stock write off the company incurred a loss of Rs.69.51 crore. Further, it's foreign exchange loss amounted to Rs.302.21 crore as against gain of Rs.393.33 crore in the same period of last year.

The company expects to achieve sales of Rs.130 billion to Rs.135 billion for 15 months period ending March 2014. This does not consider any sales accruing from FTFs which shall be accounted for as they materialize.

For the nine months period ended September 2013, Ranbaxy's consolidated net sales declined by 19.2 per cent to Rs.7,745 crore from Rs.9,582 crore in the similar period of last year. The company incurred a heavy net loss of Rs.852.65 crore as against a net profit of Rs.1415.21 crore. Its net loss increased mainly due to the loss from Mohali stock write off of Rs.69.51 crore (Rs.nil in the previous period), impairment of goodwill Rs.119.17 crore (nil) and forex loss of Rs.587.47 crore during the period under review as against forex gain of Rs.138.69 crore in the similar period of last year.