Lupin net up 55%, led by strong US & India sales

Aims to prioritise acquisitions in US

Lupin, India's second biggest generic drug maker by market value, has said that inorganic opportunities in the US drug market is its first priority, after the company reported a 55 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 630 crore during the second quarter of current financial year compared to Rs 406 crore in a year ago period.

While the profit was better than Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 583 crore, the net sales at Rs 3,117 crore were lower than expectations of Rs 3,324 crore. While the operating performance in key markets such as US and India continues to be robust and drove the September quarter numbers, the net profit was driven by non-operational items including a sharp decline in tax outgo and forex gains.

Net sales for the company grew by over 18 per cent at Rs 3,116 crore as against Rs 2,631 crore in a year ago period. The better than estimated growth was led by handsome growth in US and Japan market further complimented by decent growth in the domestic market, according to company managing director Nilesh Gupta.

Speaking to Business Standard over phone, Gupta said: "Acquisitions in the US is our top priority at this moment and we are looking at various opportunities to increase our presence in that market. It can be a brand acquisition or in area of technology or at operations. The aspiration is to close few deals in this fiscal." US market, the biggest in world, contributes about 41 per cent of total sales for Lupin while Japan market has a pie of 11 per cent and India stands with a share of 26 per cent.

"We have had a good first half with handsome growth in all the key markets. Our research pipeline is evolving well and we expect significant developments in the dermatology and inhalation space in the quarters to come," he added.

Commenting on reports suggesting the company's intent to bid for GlaxoSmithKline's older drugs being put on auction, Gupta said it was no more on the priority list of the company. "We evaluated that but as things stand it is not on the immediate radar of the company at this moment," he added.

Lupin is the 5th largest and fastest growing top 5 generics player in the US with 5.3% market share by prescriptions, according to data from IMS Health and it is also the 3rd largest Indian pharmaceutical company by sales. US formulation sales (Including IP) grew by 23 per cent at Rs 1,272 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 1,030 crore in in a year ago period. Lupin's India formulations business grew by 20 per cent recording net sales of Rs 799 crore during Q2 FY 2014-15, as compared to Rs 664 crore in a year ago period.

The market, however, was disappointed. The stock fell 2.6 per cent to close at Rs 1,357.65 on the BSE on Tuesday.