DRL's net up 14% at Rs 626 crore; Russia a drag

Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) today reported a nearly 14 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 625.6 crore for the April-June quarter on account of cost cutting measures and robust sales in North American markets.
PAT for Q1 of FY 2014-15 was at Rs 550.1 crore.
Despite a sharp decline in Russian sales, overall revenue stood at Rs 3,757.8 crore, up 7 per cent from Rs 3,517.5 crore reported in the same quarter a year ago, Saumen Chakraborty, President, CFO and Global Head of HR, said in a press conference here.
The healthy set of numbers gave fillip to the DRL stock, which closed at Rs 3,907.55 apiece, up 5.23 per cent over the previous close on the BSE.

"The overall EBTDA improvement is because....One is a mix of business and second, there has been a very good cost control. In terms of sales, we have not got the numbers which we expected mostly because of the Russian issues," he said.
Revenues from global generics stood at nearly Rs 3,096 crore during the June quarter, an 8 per cent growth over the same period last fiscal.

Revenues from Russia declined by 42 per cent to Rs 230 crore due to the currency (rouble) depreciation, while income from other CIS markets remained flat at Rs 80 crore, he said.
Abhijit Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer of DRL, expects the pressure in Russian market to continue for some more time though the market is moving towards stabilisation.

"Post turbulence, things have started stabilising there. In fact, we see secondary sales coming back. Slowly it is moving to recovery path. It will take a few quarters to come back," Mukherjee replied when asked about the situation in Russian market.
DRL's sales from generics in North America market, predominantly in the US, stood at Rs 1,852 crore in Q1, up 14 per cent over the same quarter last year. The company did not launch any new products in the US market during the quarter.
Generic sales from Europe stood at Rs 191 crore, up 43 per cent over Q1 of last year, on account of new product launches.

Indian revenues of the Hyderabad-based drug major grew 19 per cent to Rs 476 crore during the period under review as against Rs 400 crore in Q1 FY 2014-15.
Revenues from Pharmaceutical Services and Active Ingredients stood at Rs 560 crore in the first quarter of 2015-16, during which the company filed half a dozen ANDAs (abbreviated new drug applications).