The company’s shares, which are up 4% so far this year, ended 0.43% higher. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd , India’s third-largest drug maker by revenue, on Thursday reported a 57% jump in fourth-quarter net profit, slightly above expectations, helped by higher sales in the United States, its largest market.
The company, which is in the process of acquiring loss-making rival Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd , posted a net profit of Rs.15.87 billion ($269.55 million) in January-March, compared with Rs.10.12 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average expected Rs.15.74 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Sales in January-March rose 32% to Rs.40.44 billion. The company also said it expects a 13 to 15% growth in sales in full-year 2015.
Sun Pharma , a bellwether in India’s $15-billion pharmaceutical industry, agreed in April to buy Ranbaxy from Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo Ltd for $3.2 billion, creating the world’s fifth-largest maker of generic drugs.
The drug maker, however, faces an uphill task in turning around Ranbaxy’s business and fixing manufacturing quality issues that have resulted in several Ranbaxy plants being barred from exporting to the United States.
Sun Pharma is also working towards resolving quality control issues that got its Karkhadi, India, plant banned by the US Food and Drug Administration in March.
The company’s shares, which are up 4% so far this year, ended 0.43% higher, while the Nifty was down 1.3%.
No comments:
Post a Comment