Gland Pharma Q4 Results: Firm misses profit view on higher employee costs

Indian generic injectables maker Gland Pharma reported fourth-quarter profit below estimates on Wednesday, as soaring employee expenses outweighed strong demand in its core markets.

It reported a consolidated net profit of 1.92 billion rupees ($23 million) for the quarter ended March 31, missing analysts' average estimate of 2.41 billion rupees as per LSEG data.

In the year-ago period, the company had reported a profit of 786.8 million rupees which included a one-time impairment charge of 564.6 million rupees.

Its revenue from operations jumped nearly 96% to 15.37 billion rupees, ahead of analysts' estimates of 15.23 billion rupees, led by an eight-fold jump in Europe sales and an 83% growth in U.S. sales.

These markets together constitute about 75% of the company's total revenue.

The revenue was also boosted by Gland Pharma's acquisition of French pharmaceutical group Cenexi in January 2023. Excluding this income, its revenue rose 50% to 11.74 billion rupees.

Sales in the company's other core markets, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, rose 58% to 578 million rupees.

However, this was more than offset by its expenses surging 95% to 12.81 billion rupees, mainly due to a more than three-fold jump in employee-related costs and higher raw material prices.

Its tax expenses also surged more than three-fold to 1.06 billion rupees.

Last week, rival Dr Reddy's reported fourth-quarter results above estimates on strong U.S. demand, while Cipla missed revenue estimates due to weakness in its India consumer segment.

Earlier in the day, Sun Pharma reported fourth-quarter revenue below, and profit above estimates.

Separately, the company also declared a dividend of 20 rupees per share.

($1 = 83.2760 Indian rupees)


(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)