Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, India's third-largest drugmaker by revenue, has reported a 57 per cent jump in fourth-quarter net profit, slightly above expectations, helped by higher sales in the United States, its largest market.
Sun Pharma Q4 net profit up 57 percent, beats expectations
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, India's third-largest drugmaker by revenue, has reported a 57 per cent 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, 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 per cent to Rs 40.44 billion. The company also said it expects a 13 to 15 per cent 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 for $3.2 billion, creating the world's fifth-largest maker of generic drugs.
The drugmaker, 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.
Sun Pharma shares, which are up 4 per cent so far this year, ended 0.43 per cent higher on Thursday, even as the BSE Sensex closed 1.3 per cent down.