The Hindu Business Line : Nicholas Piramal to focus on customs manufacturing, better assets utilisation

Increased focus on profitability in the customs manufacturing business and better utilisation of assets will be the focus for drug-maker Nicholas Piramal India Ltd in the current year, the NPIL Chairman, Mr Ajay Piramal, said.

Revenues from customs manufacturing, at Rs 1,370 crore, account for 51 per cent of the company’s consolidated revenues of Rs 2,878.9 crore. Elaborating on the better utilisation of assets, he told Business Line, that the company would look at bringing more production from its existing base in the UK to India.

NPIL had acquired Pfizer’s Morepeth facility in the UK in 2006 and Aecia’s unit in 2005 and the process of shifting some of the production to India is already in place. The company has a one-time provision of Rs 34 crore for restructuring, he added.

More restructuring will take place, he said, and added that the company would look to get new business for its assets in the UK as well.

The Mumbai-based company has projected growth at 16 per cent in the current fiscal and it continues to look at domestic acquisitions, he affirmed.

The company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 132.82 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, against Rs 54.95 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income stood at Rs 767 crore (Rs 645.21 crore), the company informed the BSE.

The group posted consolidated net profit of Rs 333.78 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008, against Rs 218.05 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007.

Domestic sales accounted for 40 per cent of NPIL’s total turnover and the rest was contributed by diagnostics and other businesses, Mr Piramal said. The company’s diagnostics business clocked revenues of Rs 115 crore, growing 49 per cent.

The company pointed out the consolidated performance of the year under review were not comparable with that of the previous year, as NPIL had subsequently demerged its research arm from April 2007.

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