(Reuters) - India's largest drugmaker by market value Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd posted a nearly four-fold jump in quarterly profit on Tuesday, breezing past estimates on strong sales in the U.S. market.
Net profit came in at 12.42 billion rupees ($175.45 million) versus 3.22 billion rupees profit last year, the company said, which was above an average estimate for a profit of 9.86 billion rupees from 16 analysts, Refinitiv Eikon data shows.
Last year in the same quarter the company had a one-time tax expense of 5.13 billion rupees, related to changes to tax rates in the United States.
Sales in the United States, which accounted for more than 34 percent of the total sales, rose 10 percent to $362 million. Its sales at home grew 7 percent to 22.35 billion rupees, the company said https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/d50142ce-b584-4041-acec-abc47684047b.pdf.
Total revenue from operations grew 16.3 percent to 77.40 billion rupees
The drugmaker's shares closed up 1.9 percent ahead of the results, in a broader market that ended 0.53 percent lower.
Sun shares have slumped 35 percent over the past five months, hurt by a surprise second-quarter loss on a hefty U.S. anitrust litigation settlement, concerns over corporate governance and the recall of its injectable muscle relaxant Vecuronium bromide due to the presence of glass.
For an interactive graphic on Sun Pharma's performance in the past year, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2E5FTMf
Among other domestic players in the sector, smaller rival Lupin Ltd recently posted a surprise loss due to a one-time charge linked to litigation over a blood pressure drug.
Cipla posted a fall in December-quarter profit, weighed by higher tax expenses and weak domestic sales.
($1 = 70.7875 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar/Keith Weir)
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