India's Mankind Pharma's Q4 profit jumps on strength in chronic drugs segment

Bengaluru: Indian pharmaceutical company Mankind Pharma posted a more than 65 per cent rise in its fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by strong domestic demand in its chronic drugs segment.

The company also approved a fundraise of up to 75 billion rupees or an equivalent amount via issuance of shares under qualified institutional placement, it said in an exchange filing.

Mankind, which makes acute and chronic therapeutics, including anti-infectives and anti-diabetics, posted consolidated profit at 4.71 billion rupees (about $56 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with 2.85 billion rupees a year earlier.

The company, also one of India's leading condom makers, saw its revenue from operations rise nearly 19 per cent to 24.41 billion rupees, led by a 10 per cent increase in its chronic therapies business revenue.

The company's chronic drug segment makes cardiac and anti-diabetic drugs.

During the quarter, Mankind had entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca Pharma for exclusive distribution of asthma medicine for patients in India.

"We have further strengthened our chronic product portfolio with strategic in-house launches, coupled with in-licensing of products like Symbicort - a globally renowned inhaler from AstraZeneca," Managing Director Rajeev Juneja said in a statement.

Its popular consumer healthcare business segment, which houses Manforce condom and Prega News pregnancy detection kit, saw 2.9 per cent growth in revenue.

Mankind's revenue from export business jumped threefold during the quarter, "aided by one-off opportunities in the United States".

Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin expanded to 24.3 per cent from 20.4 per cent a year ago.

Shares of Mankind Pharma settled 2.6 per cent lower on Wednesday before the results were announced.

($1 = 83.4538 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)