Tag: US business

Cipla expects India growth to normalise at 10-12% in next 2-3 quarters

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Drug major Cipla, on Tuesday, posted a 7.6 percent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 712 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2021. In the corresponding quarter last year, the company posted a net profit of Rs 661.8 crore. Consolidated revenue from operations increased by 9.6 percent to Rs 5,519.8 crore from Rs 5,038.3 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2020-21. Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 4.2 percent to Rs 1,226.2 crore as against Rs 1,176.7 crore in the corresponding period last year. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Umang Vohra, MD & Global CEO, Cipla, discussed the company’s outlook.

Read Here: Cipla Q2 results: Net profit rises 7.6% to Rs 712 crore; beats estimates

On India business growth, he said, “India growth over the next two to three quarters should come back to normal 10 to 12 percent range. I think supply will hope to do better than the market. Market probably is moving towards the 10 to 12 percent. We have had bump ups on account of COVID, non-COVID across the last year, and therefore the base effect will begin to make a difference. But I am quite confident that we should be able to beat market growth as market begins to stabilize back to normal levels in the next one to two quarters.”

On tie-up with Moderna, Vohra said there has not been much progress on that, and they are still open for collaboration.

“There are various issues with regard to the import of the vaccine, some around indemnity, some around the fact that the opportunity now in India may have reduced considering the fact that we have got a significant number of people vaccinated,” he mentioned.

Read Here: Covaxin a Eureka moment; India needs to be more than just pharmacy of the world

On price pressure, he said, “The price pressures will be somewhere around 5 to 8 percent on the base portfolio on an annual basis. We are currently looking at this launch calendar shaping up after about two to three quarters, more like in the second half of the next year as some of our big launches are lined up and that is when we materially see the US ramp-up.”

With regard to launch of new drugs – Abraxane, Revlimid, Advair Generic Vohra said these are to be next year’s second half launches.

On margins, Vohra said, “We have levers and we are trying to control the margin trajectory as much as we can. In the last quarter, practically COVID from an India perspective is almost down to a level which I would think is close to base. The input costs are something that we have to worry about. A large portion to some extent were in Q2, but I do expect it to be slightly higher in Q3 and the other variable for us will be our R&D costs. So we might see a percent or a percent-and-a-half kind of pressure on the EBITDA margin, but I think we have operating leverage and synergies to be able to drive momentum out of those.”

For full management commentary, watch the video.

-With PTI inputs

Also Read: Zydus Cadila’s COVID vaccine for kids ZyCoV-D to be rolled out soon; Centre negotiates pricing

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Newgen Software returns to 20% growth rates, says US deal pipeline strong

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Newgen Software Technologies has returned to historical growth rates to the tune of 20 percent, Chief Executive Officer Virender Jeet told CNBC-TV18. The CEO’s remarks come after the IT company reported a good set of financial results for the July-September period. its profit after tax (PAT) grew 73.1 percent sequentially.

Also Read: Experts decode future of India’s information technology revolution

“In the US last year, we had substantial growth and witnessed high growth on account of a onetime business, which was a paycheck parity programme; on that base, growing another 20 percent would have been difficult,” Jeet said.

Speaking on the US business, he said, “It is going to be one of our largest markets and going to be our primary growth driver. Our pipeline continues to be strong there and has a lot of interesting cases going on.”

For the entire management interview, watch the video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Wockhardt partners with Enso Healthcare to manufacture 620 million doses of Sputnik vaccines

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Wockhardt is in focus after the company signed a deal with Enso Healthcare, a Dubai based company to manufacture Sputnik V and Sputnik Light. The agreement is to manufacture up to 620 million doses.

Habil F Khorakiwala, chairman, Wockhardt, said, “This is the tripartite agreement with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Enso Healthcare which we have, and this is to supply about 120 million doses by June 2022 and balance 500 by June 2023. So, this is something which we have been investing in terms of developing technology; transfer technology is more or less complete. One very unique part of our transaction is that we are the only company in India to supply Sputnik Light, which is a single dose vaccine versus Sputnik V, so we supply both. So that is as far as this transaction is concerned.”

On vaccine business, he said, “As far as the vaccine business as a whole is concerned, we have already finished the agreement with Government of UK and that will go on till later part of next year.”

He further said, “Our agreement currently is upto September 2022 and we expect that in the current year, because we started to supply the vaccine in the later part of the year, so I think we expect an order of around 40 million pounds of business coming in from the UK Government.”

He added, “Additionally, we are also in discussion in India, to manufacture both vaccines. When something gets finalised, we will inform.”

On revenues from Sputnik, Khorakiwala said, “I don’t think I can reveal the numbers but generally, it is quite profitable and in a sense that roughly is $ 2 per dose, we have already invested part of the funding for this capacity. We also have other facilities available and depending on what we finalise, we will repurpose existing facility to make those vaccines. As far as fill finished facilities are concerned, we have quite a large facility available, we would have additional facility available in spite of meeting this requirement of Sputnik range of products with the other suppliers also.”

On pricing pressure in US business, Khorakiwala said, “US business is relatively small and it represents about 12 to 15 percent of our value. There is definitely some pricing pressure, no doubt about that. Therefore, profitability is a challenge. But we are going to increase this business in the current year as we are getting third party manufacturing. Data numbers of ANDAs are already approved, so that is our plan here, we will do third party manufacturing and increase the topline.”

For full management commentary, watch the video.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Aurobindo Pharma Q1FY22 preview: Street expects 4% revenue growth

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Aurobindo Pharma will report its Q1 earnings on August 12. If you look at Aurobindo majority of its sales actually come in from the US as well as regulated markets, it barely has an India exposure as well. So that is the reason why Aurobindo would become an interesting set of numbers to watch out for.

So overall revenue is expected to grow around 4 percent, EBITDA is expected to grow around 3 percent odd with margins maintained at around 21 percent and a profit growth of around five percent odd.

So now expectations at the US business is expected to be flat on a quarter-on-quarter basis. It could decline year-on-year because they had Natrol, their US division which they sold off so there will be a decline year-on-year.

The market is expecting to see a recovery in volume but I am going to see that big word US price pressure, you know that phrase which has impacted Lupin, Cadila Healthcare, Dr. Reddys, all of them across the board and that is what the market will watch out for what is the price pressure for Aurobindo and the injectables business.

Remember, injectables is a big growth driver expected to be over the next couple of years for Aurobindo how it does this quarter. It was a marginal recovery that we saw in the previous quarter.

Separately, margins are expected to be maintained at 21 percent.

Watch the accompanying video for more.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cipla Q3 net profit dips 20% to Rs 322 crore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Drug major Cipla on Wednesday reported a 20 percent dip in consolidated net profit to Rs 322.24 crore for the December 2018 quarter, mainly on account of higher tax expenses.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 403.45 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Cipla said in a BSE filing.

Consolidated total revenue from operations of the company stood at Rs 4,007.54 crore for the quarter, compared with Rs 3,913.82 crore for the same period year ago.

“Overall, challenges in this quarter were along expected lines and we remain optimistic as we enter FY20. Our plan to drive YoY growth from the coming quarters in on track,” said Cipla Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer Umang Vohra.

This quarter, the US business has delivered strongly, as a result of scale-up of new launches. The company is tracking well on its guidance on limited competition launches and abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) approvals, he added.

“Our key focus markets remain growth anchors, we have built further on our existing specialty pipeline, and we continue to explore innovative ways of going beyond the pill to meet unmet patient needs,” Vohra said.

The tax expenses for the quarter stood at Rs 125.68 crore. It had a tax benefit of Rs 64.23 crore in the year-ago period.

Shares of Cipla Ltd were trading at Rs 527.95 per scrip on the BSE, up 3.75 per cent from the previous close.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Alibaba’s Jack Ma says can’t meet promise to create 1 million US jobs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said the company can no longer meet its promise to create 1 million jobs in the United States due to US-China trade tensions, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

Ma had met US President Donald Trump two years ago and laid out the Chinese e-commerce giant’s plan to bring one million small US businesses onto its platform to sell to Chinese consumers over the next five years.

“This commitment is based on friendly China-US cooperation and the rational and objective premise of bilateral trade,” Ma told Xinhua. “The current situation has already destroyed the original premise. There is no way to deliver the promise.”

Ma said on Tuesday that trade tensions between the United States and China could last for two decades and would be “a mess” for all parties involved.

He had also said trade tensions would likely impact Chinese and foreign companies immediately and negatively, while predicting that Chinese businesses may move production to other countries in the medium-term to get around tariffs.

Trump on Monday imposed 10 percent tariffs on about $200 billion worth of imports from China, and threatened duties on about $267 billion more if China retaliated against the US action.

China responded a day later with tariffs on about $60 billion worth of US goods as previously planned, but reduced the level of tariffs that it will collect on the products.

Ma, the charismatic co-founder of Alibaba, announced last week that he would step down in one year to concentrate on philanthropy and education, passing on the reins to trusted lieutenant Daniel Zhang.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow