Torrent Pharma Net Profit Dips 11% To Rs 41 Crore

Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd has registered a net profit of Rs 41 crore for the year ended March 31, 2001, which is 11 per cent lower than Rs 46 crore posted last year.

The company has attributed the drop in net profit primarily to the non-recurrence of a Rs 90 crore tender-based export order which the company had bagged and executed last year.

Secondly, Torrent's current year net profit is after a charge of Rs 2.36 crore for accrued leave liability to employees, it added.

The board of directors has proposed a 75 per cent dividend (Rs 7.50 per equity share) as against 101 per cent (Rs 10.10 per share) paid last year.

The sales and operating income of the company has gone down by five per cent to Rs 406 crore compared with Rs 428 crore in 1999-2000.

However, if the previous year's figure, which is inclusive of the Rs 90 crore tender-based export order, is factored out, the sales and operating income has grown 20 per cent, a company official said.

However, the company's operating profit (PBIDT) for the year under review was Rs 80 crore against Rs 93 crore in the previous year, which indicates a fall of 16 per cent.

Removing the PBIDT of Rs 21 crore of the tender-based export sale, the operating profit shows a growth of 11 per cent, he added.

During the year, Torrent incurred heavy research and development expenditure on development of new products and also marketing expenditure on launch of new products, all of which was expensed out. This too had a depressing effect on the operating profit, the company pointed out.

The core domestic market branded formulations sales grew from Rs 231 crore for the previous year to Rs 278 crore, registering a growth of 20 per cent compared with the industry growth of approximately nine per cent. This growth in sales was fuelled by new product introductions.

Around 24 new products (including line extensions) were introduced during the year compared with six in the previous year.