Lupin Q4 net profit up 35% to Rs 390 cr on robust sales, lower tax expenses

Drug firm Lupin has reported a 34.55 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 389.63 crore for the quarter ended March 2020 mainly on account of robust sales in the domestic market and lower tax expenses.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 289.56 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Lupin said in a late night filing on Thursday.

Consolidated income from operations of the company stood at Rs 3,791 crore for the quarter under consideration as against Rs 3,807.02 crore for the same period year ago.

For the fiscal year ended March 2020, the company posted a net loss of Rs 269.39 crore. It had posted a net profit of Rs 606.55 crore for the previous fiscal year, Lupin said.

Company's income from operations for the fiscal year ended March this year stood at Rs 15,142.80 crore. It was Rs 14,318.05 crore for the year ago fiscal.

The net debt as on March 31, 2020, stood at Rs 1,511.8 crore. The net debt-equity ratio for the company was at 0.12:1 as on March 31, 2020, Lupin said.

"We closed the year with strong growth across all our key markets and significant strengthening of our profitability and balance sheet. We have had strong momentum in our two major markets, the US and India, and on compliance across our facilities," Lupin MD Nilesh Gupta said.

Importantly, in the current times, Lupin has been able to ensure business continuity while safeguarding the health and safety of its employees, he added.

During the quarter under consideration, India region formulation sales grew by 15 per cent compared to same quarter in the year ago fiscal year.

The total tax expense of the company for the fourth quarter of FY 2020 was at Rs 105.07 crore as against Rs 294.27 crore for the same period year ago, it added.

Investment in research and development for continued operations amounted to Rs 1,553.8 crore (10.3 per cent of sales) for FY2020 and Rs 344.2 crore (9.1 per cent of sales) for Q4 FY2020, the filing said.

The board of directors of the company has recommended a dividend of Rs 6 per equity share of the face value of Rs 2 each aggregating to Rs 271.84 crore, Lupin said.

Shares of Lupin were trading at Rs 859.60 per scrip on BSE, down 2.48 per cent from its previous close.