Piramal Pharma posts Q2 loss in first review, post demerger 

Piramal Pharma has posted a net loss of ₹37 crore for Q2, its first financial review since it was demerged from parent Piramal Enterprises Ltd.

The company had posted a net profit after tax of ₹36.5 crore in the corresponding period, last year.

Announcing its first results as an independent company, Piramal Pharma, Chairperson, Nandini Piramal said, “For the quarter and half year ended September 2022, our business has delivered a resilient performance despite multiple internal and external challenges. We expect to deliver a much-improved performance in the second half of the current financial year. Historically, we have had a greater skew of sales and profits in the second half of the year and this year is no different.”

Detailing the comparable financials across its business segments, the company said, its second quarterly revenue from operations stood at ₹1720 crore, compared to ₹1621 crore for the corresponding period in the previous year. Revenue from its CDMO segment (contract manufacturing and development organisation) stood at ₹940 crore in the period under review, compared to ₹925 crore last year. The complex hospital generics (CHG) segment stood at ₹562 crore in Q2 this year, as compared to ₹500 crore last year. And the India consumer health (ICH) stood at ₹227 crore in the said quarter and ₹188 crore, last year.

On the business highlights for the different segments, the company said it was witnessing a strong inflow of Request for Proposal (RFP) and an increase in customer audits, however, experiencing slower decision-making by customers due to macro-economic pressures. The company was undertaking judicious price increases, cost optimization, and other measures to offset inflationary pressures. It had successfully cleared over 20 regulatory inspections and over 100 customer audits in H1 FY23, and was developing alternate vendors and building resilient supply chains to counter supply chain disruptions, it added.

The CHG segment was witnessing strong Inhalation Anesthesia (IA) sales in the US with continued volume growth. The company was adding IA capacities in India to serve the growing demand from non-US markets, it said. And in the ICH segment, brands like Lacto Calamine, Littles, Polycrol, Tetmosol, and I-range, grew by 40 percent in the first half of the financial year.

The company said its financial performance was not comparable with last year’s Q2. The demerger had been approved in August 2022, and that included PPL’s amalgamation of wholly owned subsidiaries, Hemmo Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd (HPPL) and Convergence Chemical Pvt Ltd (CCPL) into itself, from April 2022.

This has been reflected in the financial statements, the company said. Also, prior to the demerger, PPL had an arrangement with PEL for continued onward sale by PEL, of products under Government tenders that were obtained in the name of PEL, till obligations under these tenders were fully met. The agreement also included the sale of PPL’s Consumer products (OTC) through PEL’s network till all requisite licenses, registrations, permits were fully transferred in the name of PPL, it added.

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