MUMBAI (Reuters) - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, India's largest drugmaker, said on Saturday third-quarter net profit fell unexpectedly due to a decline in sales in the United States and costs from resolving regulatory issues at a manufacturing plant.
But the company said it expected to meet its guidance for revenue growth of 13 to 15 percent for the current fiscal year ending in March.
Sun Pharma's net profit in October-December was 14.25 billion rupees ($229.60 million), down from 15.31 billion rupees in the same period a year ago. Analysts on average expected a profit of 16.48 billion rupees.
Sales of formulations in the United States, the company's largest market, fell 5 percent, mainly due to increased competition for the antibiotic generic drug doxycycline, managing director Dilip Shanghvi said on a conference call with analysts.
Shanghvi also said the company's earnings were affected by costs associated with addressing the observations raised by U.S. Food and Drug Administration after an inspection of Sun's Halol manufacturing plant in western India in September.
Shanghvi declined to specify the costs associated with resolving those issues.
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"Some of this remediation has impacted our supplies in the third quarter, but we expect them to resume in the fourth quarter," he told analysts.
Sun Pharma, which is in the process of acquiring smaller rival Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, said it is currently awaiting approvals from the high courts of the states of Punjab and Haryana, and expects to close the deal during this financial year.
Sun Pharma agreed to buy Ranbaxy for $3.2 billion in April 2014. The company also continues to look for other acquisitions in the United States and bolt-on deals in emerging markets, Shanghvi said, adding that speciality areas such as dermatology might be of interest.
($1 = 62.0658 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui; Additional reporting by Indulal PM; Editing by Rafael Nam and Jane Merriman)