Dr Reddy's Labs fourth quarter profit slumps on Venezuela write-off

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd , India's second-largest drugmaker, reported a much lower-than-expected fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, hit by a write-off related to its business in Venezuela.

Pharmaceutical companies, including Dr Reddy's, have been trying for months to recover their funds from Venezuela, which is battling an economic and political crisis.

Dr Reddy's said net profit for the January-March quarter slumped to 746 million rupees ($11.20 million) from 5.19 billion rupees a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a net profit of 5.52 billion rupees on average.

The company said it took a hit of 4.31 billion rupees in the fourth quarter as it was not able to get approval from the Venezuelan government to recover any more money beyond the $4 million it has already received.

($1 = 66.6000 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)