Ranbaxy net falls 4.6%

Ranbaxy Laboratories on Friday reported a 4.6 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 195.8 crore for the second quarter ended June 30, 2004 against Rs 205.3 crore profit in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company attributed ending of monopoly on the generic copy of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's antibiotic Ceftin to the fall in profits.

The sales for the second quarter has grown 11 per cent to Rs 1,258 crore during the period over Rs 1,134.9 crore last year.

For the half year ended, Ranbaxy registered an increase of 2 per cent in net profit at Rs 386.4 crore over Rs 378.2 crore in the same period last year.

While the consolidated sales have gone up 14 per cent from Rs 2245 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 2,565.9 crore this year. In second quarter, sales from overseas markets accounted for 76 per cent of global sales at $213 million and grew by 19 per cent.

And, in first half year, the sales from overseas markets increased 21 per cent to $444 million and contributed 78 per cent to global sales.

"Even though the net profit is down, we have been able to meet our sales target. We had expected a global sales growth of 20 per cent and have touched that mark already. Our overall sales projections for the year has doubled now," Brian Tempest, Ranbaxy chief executive officer and managing director said.

In India, the company introduced 4 new brands during the quarter in Urology, Gastro, Orthopedics and super specialty segments.

Tempest expects the sales in the Indian market to grow by 16 per cent in the next quarter.

Ranbaxy's US operations generated a sales of $92 million which is a decline of 9 per cent over last year. The company attributes this Cefuroxime Axetil which had contributed significantly to the sales in the corresponding period last year.

In Europe, the company recorded a strong growth of 77 per cent at $43 million primarily driven by markets in Germany, France and Poland.