Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has posted consolidated net profit growth of 10.3 per cent during the fourth quarter ended March 2018 to Rs.1,529 crore from Rs.1,386 crore in the corresponding period of last year mainly due to tax income of Rs.177 crore. Its net sales declined by 1.7 per cent to Rs.6,711 crore from Rs.6,825 crore due to lower US sales and challenging price environment. Its other operating income and other income increased by 6.2 per cent to Rs.569 crore from Rs.536 crore. EPS improved slightly to Rs.5.5 from Rs.5.2 in the last period.

The board of directors has declared equity dividend of Rs.2 per share of face value of Re 1 for the year 2017-18.

EBIDTA improved by 14.6 per cent to Rs.1,417 crore from Rs.1,236 crore in the similar quarter of last year as its interest cost increase to Rs.155 crore from Rs.45 crore and depreciation provision to Rs.455 crore from Rs.338 crore. Staff cost increased by 7.4 per cent to Rs.1,341 crore from Rs.1,249 crore. Its R&D expenditure increased by 14.1 per cent to Rs.615 crore from Rs.539 crore and worked out to 11 per cent of sales.

Its US sales declined by 7.1 per cent to Rs.2,372 crore, contributing 35 per cent to its sales. Its domestic sales increased by 2.5 per cent to Rs.1,963 crore and that in emerging markets went up by 5.4 per cent to Rs.1,279 crore. Domestic sales contributed 29 per cent and emerging market sales worked out to 19 per cent of sales.

Dilip Shanghvi, managing director, said, “Our Q4 performance is in-line with our guidance. Over the last four quarters we have been able to record a gradual improvement in performance despite a challenging US generic pricing environment. FY19 will mark the crossing of some important milestones in our specialty journey with the likely launch of 3 specialty products in the US Ilumya, OTX-101 and Yonsa which will entail upfront investment. We are also planning to conduct additional clinical trials for a new indication of Ilumya. We will continue to evaluate opportunities in the specialty segment to further enhance this business.”

For the full year ended March 2018, Sun Pharma’s consolidated net sales declined by 13.9 per cent to Rs.26,066 crore from Rs.30,264 crore in the previous year mainly due to the 180-days exclusivity for generic Imatinib and Olmesartan in the previous year. Its US formulations sales declined sharply by 36.4 per cent to Rs.8,747 crore from Rs.13,759 crore. Its sales in India improved marginally by 3.6 per cent to Rs.8,029 crore from Rs.7,749 crore and that in emerging market moved up by 6.8 per cent to Rs.4,839 crore. ROW sales increased by 15.1 per cent to Rs.2,974 crore. Its sales of APIs declined by 12.5 per cent to Rs.1,399 crore from Rs.1,598 crore.

The net profit declined sharply by 66.8 per cent to Rs.2,608 crore from Rs.7,846 crore in the previous year due to provision of Rs.950 crore towards antitrust litigation relating to a product Modafinil. Its EBIDTA declined by 40.9 per cent to Rs.5,184 crore from Rs.8,776 crore. With lower profit EPS declined to Rs.9 from Rs.29 in the previous year.

Its R&D expenditure declined by 3.7 per cent to Rs.2,067 crore from Rs.2,46 crore and worked out to 8.6 per cent of sales. Its total US FDA approvals reached at 422 ANDAs and awaiting approval for 139 products as at the end of March 2018.