Pharma major Ranbaxy reported a higher than expected loss for the fourth quarter ending December on the back of Rs 2,648 crore provisioning it set aside for the settlement with US Food and Drug Administration.
The company had signed a consent decree with the US FDA in December 2011 and had said that it will make a provision of $500 million in connection with the investigation by the US Department of Justice.
Ranbaxy, which is India's top drug maker by sales, reported a nearly 80 per cent year-on-year jump in sales at Rs 3,738 crore against Rs 2,022.7 crore. Q4 loss rose to Rs 2,982.7 crore against a loss of Rs 97.3 crore (YoY). The adjusted profit after tax rose nine times to Rs 503.3 crore against Rs 33.2 crore (YoY).
Other expenditure nearly doubled at Rs 1,438 crore against Rs 668.8 crore while the company booked a forex loss of Rs 838 crore for the quarter.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margins grew at 22.6 per cent against 8.3 per cent (YoY) largely on the back of the launch of cholesterol blockbuster drug Lipitor in the US. However, margins were below expectations.
"The numbers have been good except for provisioning and forex losses... The margins are below expectations. The stock should react positively on the numbers," Praful Bohra of Nirmal Bang told NDTV Profit today.
Shares of the company traded 0.7 per cent higher at Rs 442 on the Bombay Stock Exchange at 1458 hours. The BSE Sensex was up 0.21 per cent at 18,184.
Ranbaxy is majority owned by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo and is valued at nearly $4 billion.