Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd achieved strong financial performance during the year ended March 2006 and recommended equity dividend of 110 per cent. The company's consolidated net profit went up by 44.7 per cent to Rs 573.18 core from Rs 396.20 crore in the previous year. Its consolidated net sales increased by 38 per cent to Rs 1635 crore from Rs 1185 crore. The earning per share touched to Rs 30.9 from Rs 21.4 in the last period.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman and managing director, said, "This is another successful year where all our business has done well and we see that we are structured to rapidly expand our international business." The company expects to have sales growth of 18-20 per cent for the year ahead. The generic R&D expenses I estimated at 10-12 per cent of sales. Capepx across all sites would be about Rs 100 crore and the company is planning to file additional 30 ANDAs in coming year.

The company's domestic sales increased by 35 per cent to Rs 1041 crore from Rs 771.63 crore. The sales of formulations increased by 41.1 per cent to Rs 959.58 crore but that of bulk drugs declined by 10.2 per cent to Rs 81.52 crore from Rs 90.82 crore. Sun Pharma recorded export growth of 38.1 per cent to Rs 694.46 crore as against Rs 502.74 crore in the previous year. Both formulation and bulk drugs divisions pushed exports by 36.9 per cent and 40.4 per cent respectively.

The company's total R&D expenditure went up sharply by 40.9 per cent to Rs 202.85 crore from Rs 143.98 crore in the previous year. The R&D expenditure as percent of total sales worked out to 11.7 per cent in FY'06 as against 11.3 per cent. The shareholders approved the demerger and transfer of Innovative Research and Development (Including New Drug Delivery System) of the company to Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd (SPARC).

Sun Pharma filed 14 ANDAs and had 30 ANDAs awaiting approval as at the end of March 2006. This takes the total number (including Caraco's filing) of ANDAs awaiting approval to 44. Total number of patents submitted pending approval now sands at 353 in addition to 56 patents received.

Recently, Sun Pharma received US FDA approval for its site for manufacturing injectables and nasal spray. During the year 2005-06, the company acquired the assets of the New Jersey based Able Labs for US$ 23 million. Further, it also acquired two manufacturing facilities - one in Hungary and another in Ohio, USA, for less than US$ 10 million. The company is now focusing on integration, product filing and operational improvements.

Its Detroit based subsidiary Caraco Pharma achieved annual sales of US$82.8 million, up by 29 per cent. Caraco filed 10 ANDAs during the year and currently hs 14 ANDAs awaiting FDA approval.