Lupin records a 5 percent rise in FY 2019

Despite the pressure of business in the US, pharma major, Lupin Limited, recorded a 5.2 percent rise in revenues to Rs 16,369.4 crore in FY19, as compared to Rs 15,559.8 crore in the previous year. Annual net profit at Rs 606.6 crore shot up 141.4 percent from Rs 251.3 crore in the previous year. If Lupin had to earmark an impairment provision of Rs 1464.4 crore on certain intangible assets acquired as part of the highly paid Gavis group acquisition in FY 2018, this year, it had to make a provision of Rs 340 crore for a fine imposed by a court in Europe. The court in December 2018 had upheld a decision to impose a fine of Euro 40 million (over Rs 325 crore) on the company by the European Commission (EC) for striking deals with other companies to prevent entry of cheap versions of blood-pressure-lowering drug, Perindopril.

Lupin’s North America business, hampered by market issues like wholesaler consolidation and a bad acquisition of Gavis, recorded a 5.1 percent fall to Rs 5592.4 crore from the previous year’s Rs 5893.9 crore. This was offset by a good growth in the domestic market. Sales in India grew 12.4 percent during the year to Rs 4638.2 crore from Rs 4125.3 crore in the earlier year. While the North-America market contributed 34 percent of the sales, India’s accounted for around 29 percent. Lupin’s active pharmaceutical ingredient sales also grew 23.2 percent to Rs 1346.4 crore during the year. While Asia-Pacific, European, Middle-East, and Africa business grew slightly during the year, its Latin-American market business fell by 2.3 percent. Capital expenditure for FY2019 was Rs 685.1 crore.

Revenue expenditure on R&D for the year amounted to Rs 1573.1 crore, which is 9.6 percent of sales. It was 11.9 percent in the previous year.