Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, an emerging global pharmaceutical company, has described the reports on its take over by pharma major GlaxoSmithKline as “speculative”.
DRL Vice-president and Chief Executive Officer G.V. Prasad said the company had entered into strategic tie-up with the GSK for marketing its products in the emerging markets. “We share the revenues as part of the agreement,” he said, reiterating that the promoters of the DRL were not willing to dilute their stake in the company.
Mr. Prasad, accompanied by DRL managing director Satish Reddy and Chief Financial Officer Umang Vohra, announced the results of the company during the first half of the current financial year. The company registered consolidated revenue of Rs. 1863.8 crore during the first half against Rs. 1,651 of the corresponding period previous fiscal, with 14 per cent growth. The net profit for the period increased by 106 per cent from Rs. 105.2 crore to Rs. 217.3 crore and the company announced diluted earnings per share of Rs. 12.8 against the Rs. 6.2 of the first half of the previous fiscal.
Mr. Satish Reddy said the year on year growth was driven by North America where the company had registered 36 per cent growth including high volume growth across the existing products. There was growth in revenues from Russian and Indian markets, but the company witnessed decrease in sales in German market.
The company was, however, committed to continue its operations in Germany which remained a sizeable market. The situation there was still evolving and the market was yet to settle and this prompted the company to change its strategy.
Explaining about the company’s initiatives, he said DRL incurred capital expenditure of U.S. 30 million in the two special economic zones it was setting up in Visakhapaatnam (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and Medak finished dosage products. The company was expected to incur a total investment close to U.S. $200 million by the time the SEZs were completed in a couple of years.
