Alembic Q2 net zooms up 213%

BS 200 SCORECARD

Vadodara-based drug maker Alembic Ltd registered a sharp rise in net profit for the second quarter of the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004, with the company registering a net profit of Rs 19.65 crore as against a net profit of Rs 6.28 crore in the corresponding period last year.

While sales for the quarter remained flat with sales at Rs 162.95 crore (Rs 162.05 crore), operating profit grew to Rs 31.55 crore (Rs 22.74 crore).

The improvement was largely due to higher formulations sales as a percentage of the total sales. Sales of formulations as a percentage of total sales during the second quarter stood at 80 per cent as compared to 74 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

Earnings per share for the second quarter was Rs 7.42 and for the half year ended September 30, 2004, it is Rs 10.19. The corresponding figures for the previous year were Rs 2.32 and Rs 5.31, respectively.

The formulations manufacturing facility of the company at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh with a constructed area of 1.50 lakh square feet and a capacity to manufacture 90 crore tablets and six crore bottles per year, has been commissioned in October 2004 and is expected to reach better capacity utilisation from November 2004 onwards.

The company introduced seven new products during the first half of the current fiscal and about eight per cent of the company's formulations business is contributed by new products, but total sales continued to be affected adversely as Penicillin G continues to be under severe pricing pressure.