On the back of news that Orchid Pharma made a net profit of ₹55.24 crore for 2022-23, compared with a net loss of ₹56.89 crore for 2021-22 (from continuing operations), the price of the company’s share on the NSE has hit the 5 per cent upper circuit.
On the morning of Thursday, it is trading at ₹414.75, up almost 20 per cent from the previous close.
Notably, the profit (from continuing operations) for 2022-23, included ₹39.21 crore — the profit that came from the sale of its land and buildings in Chennai.
The numbers for the fourth quarter (January-March 2023) of the last financial year are even more remarkable than the full year’s figures. The company made a net profit, on a consolidated basis, of ₹65.93 crore, compared with a net loss of ₹3.56 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
However, taking into account the ‘loss from discontinued operations amounting to ₹6.77 crore, for 2022-23 (compared with ‘profit from discontinued operations’ of ₹58.47 crore for the previous year), the ‘total comprehensive income’ for 2022-23, worked out to ₹46.14 crore, compared with a loss of ₹53 lakh previously.
The annual earnings per share works out to ₹13.01, against a loss per share of ₹14.80 in 2021-22. In 2022-23, Orchid Pharma, achieved a consolidated turnover of ₹685 crore, compared with ₹568 crore in 2021-22.
In February 2023, the company posted a consolidated net profit of ₹6.73 crore for the third quarter.
Company profile
Orchid Pharma Ltd was set up in 1992 (as Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd) by a first-generation entrepreneur, Kailasam Raghavendra Rao, to manufacture the cephalosporin family of anti-biotics (which were just emerging out of the patent-protected period).
The company was taken over by Dhanuka Laboratories of Delhi, through insolvency proceedings, in June 2019, for ₹1,116 crore. The company then owed banks ₹3,200 crore to a consortium of 24 banks.
It was one of the 28 large corporate defaulters in the list of Reserve Bank of India’s list of highly indented companies that were referred to insolvency in August 2017.
In March 2023, Orchid Pharma and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Orchid Bio Pharma entered into an MoU with overseas technology provider for in-licensing of ‘7ACA’, a technology to reduce import dependence and improve margins through backward integration process.