Sun Pharma’s Q2 Profit Falls Less Than Expected

India's largest drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Ltd. saw a steep decline in profit in the July-September quarter but beat analyst expectations.

Profit fell 59 percent over the same quarter last year to Rs 912 crore, according to a stock exchange filing. This was higher than the Rs 800 crore estimated by a consensus of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

• Revenue fell 19.4 percent to Rs 6,650.3 crore, missing the Rs 6,800 crore estimate.
• Operating income fell 56 percent to Rs 1,375 crore, in line with expectations.
• Operating margin contracted over 17 percentage points to 20.7 percent.

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical closed 1.2 percent lower ahead of the results, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended trade 0.3 percent down.

Conference Call Highlights

• India sales grew 11 percent over last year at Rs 2,221 crore
• U.S. sales down 44 percent over last year at $309 million
• Company had the benefit of 180-day exclusivity for Imatinib last year
• Emerging markets sales rose 16 percent to $196 million
• Rest of the World sales jumped 40 percent to $111 million