This smallcap pharma stock has zoomed 101% in a month

On April 28, Morepen Group sealed $100 million (Rs 750 crore approx.) investment from Corinth Group of Switzerland

Shares of Morepen Laboratories, on Monday, were locked in 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 68.65 on the BSE, hitting a 19-year high in an otherwise weak market. The pharmaceutical company's stock is trading at its highest level since May 2002, the BSE data shows.

Till 12:15 pm, a combined 8.2 million equity shares had changed hands and there were pending buy orders for 2.75 million shares on the NSE and BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.62 per cent at 48,481 points. In the past one month, the market price of Morepen Laboratories has zoomed 101 per cent, as compared to 3 per cent decline n the S&P BSE Sensex.

Morepen Laboratories is around Rs 1,200 crore pharmaceutical and healthcare products company. All the manufacturing facilities of the company are in the state of Himachal Pradesh and meet the latest international standards. Company’s both API facilities at Masulkhana and Baddi are approved by USFDA and other regulatory bodies of Europe, Asia, and Australia.

The company's manufacturing facility at Baddi comprises a scientifically integrated complex of 10 plants, each with a specific product profile.

Amongst several Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) manufactured by Morepen, the company is the largest manufacturer of Loratadine and Montelukast (anti-allergy and anti-asthmatic drugs}. It also enjoys a significant share for Atorvastatin and Rosuvastatin (Cholesterol reducing drugs) in the international market.

On April 28, the company’s board approved the investment proposed by Corinth Group (“Corinth”), a global private investment Group headquartered in Switzerland, to the extent of USD 32.50 million in the parent company, Morepen Laboratories, out of a total USD 100 million (Rs 750 crore) investment in the promoter group, subject to approval of the shareholders and other regulatory bodies.

Following shareholder and regulatory approval, Corinth would be allotted 58.50 million new equity shares on preferential basis. This shareholding would equate to 9.41 per cent equity stake in the Company on a fully expanded capital base. The balance USD 67.50 million would be in the promoter group companies, Morepen Labs said in a press release.

The total fund infusion in Morepen Laboratories, including investor funds and promoter’s equity, will be Rs 565 crore. The funds would be used for the expansion/scaling up of the company’s R&D centre/facilities to meet the significantly enhanced API demand, a market size of US$40 billion, that Morepen has in the pipeline for the next 3 years.

The fund should be use for setting up new USFDA standard API plant to meet the significant ramp up in scale and pipeline the company is working on and establishing a world class facility for finished dosages as per USFDA standards at Morepen’s pharma complex in Baddi, to cater to highly sophisticated/regulated markets such as the USA and Japan.

The company also proposed the investment into world class diagnostics facilities including the manufacture of critical in outs/components/enzymes to meet regulated market standards. India is seeing an exponential jump in household spend on Point of Care/Home Diagnostics and Oxygen Concentrators and other life support systems with demand currently outstripping supply, etc, the company said.