• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Oct. 16 Biocon Ltd said its second-quarter net profit took a loss of Rs 60 crore and dipped 23.8 per cent on exchange rate depreciation, while its revenue grew six per cent.

A 21 per cent rise in biopharmaceuticals sales sustained the company’s growth in the first half of the year. Amidst rupee volatility and the global crisis, Biocon’s balance-sheet and order book remain strong, its Chairman and Managing Director, Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, said.

“We remain confident of delivering a good performance for the year” and of achieving 15-20 per cent growth during the current fiscal, she told a news conference.

The company’s share on the NSE dipped nearly 4 per cent to Rs 125.70 on Thursday.

Stating “We have all been caught by surprise by the rupee’s swings,” she said, “H1 ’09 performance has shown resilience despite being impacted by rupee volatility which has seen us make a mark to market provision of Rs 60 crore. Q2 FY’09 has seen us deliver the highest ever revenues across all divisions.” The company has hedged against the dollar for Rs 41.5 for this fiscal.

For the half-year, the group revenue touched Rs 734 crore or 33 per cent year-on-year rise over Rs 553 crore including the numbers from German acquisition, AxiCorp GmbH; the distribution company contributed modestly to the profit and added Rs 141 crore to the revenue. Excluding the mark-to-market loss of Rs 60 crore, the half-year consolidated PAT was Rs 100 crore.

Custom research arm Syngene International contributed 21 per cent sales growth on a quarter-on quarter basis and 9 per cent year to year for six months. The licensing income of Rs 3 crore would go up significantly in the next six months. The company was in talks to license some of its products and expects to conclude a few deals in the second half-year, Ms Mazumdar-Shah said.

Mr Rakesh Bamzai, President- Marketing, said the order book was full and the focus would be on emerging markets, and going into new markets like Brazil, Russia, South-East and East Asia.

Ruling out any downsizing of employees, Ms Mazumdar-Shaw said , “We will continue to hire, may be 100-200 this fiscal. This will be very much in line with our plans as the retail business is also expanding.”

More Stories on : Bio-tech & Genetics | Pharmaceuticals

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line