Sun Pharma reported a healthy set of earnings for the quarter ended September 30. The company’s net profit came in at Rs 2,047 crore for the quarter, exceeding Street estimates by a wide margin. The net profit increased 12.9 percent on a year-on-year basis.
CS Muralidharan, Sun Pharma’s chief financial officer (CFO) said the growth in revenue is based on the strong performance for key markets across all geographies – India, the US, emerging markets and the rest of the world.
The company's EBITDA margin improved to 27.3 percent in the September quarter, from 25.6 percent in the corresponding period a year ago.
He said the company refrained from giving any guidance for the current fiscal or for the next financial year because of the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “However, we maintain that we would continue to focus on our core businesses and gain traction in speciality business in the United States, and in our other key businesses in India, emerging markets and the rest of the world,” he told CNBC-TV18.
The speciality business for the company did well and was around $157 million in terms of total sales. Murlidharan said the key factor has been the substantial and sequential year on year growth of psoriasis treatment Ilumya. And other products also contributed well, he said.
“We continue to maintain this momentum in terms of speciality growth engine. In the last six to eight quarters in terms of revenue, the speciality business has been improving quarter on quarter and sequentially and year on year. We expect the same momentum to continue in future and focus on our core business and ensure that we are able to gain more prescriptions in the future and build this business,” he stated.
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However, he said the US operations are a matter of concern as the country is still not back to normal due to COVID-19. Therefore, in these uncertain times, it would be very difficult to give any guidance in terms of the next two quarters for US business, he said.
He said there is no guidance on margins as well but the company has indicated that the expenses will inch up as normalisation is being reached across various geographies. “Slowly, the normalisation of operations is happening in various parts of the globe where we are operating and they will come with a positive impact on the top line growth, which will also help us to enhance our margins, as we enhance our top line,” he said.
However, for the last five to six quarters, margins have been around 25 percent plus expect Q4 FY21. So, in the absence of any margin guidance, Sun Pharma is re focusing on improving further topline, cost efficiency in operations overall, and thereby trying to expand margins in uncertain times, he said.
For the full interview, watch the video
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