Muhammad Ayub Ali :
The country’s top listed pharmaceuticals have experienced profit declines due to the July-August mass upsurge, labour unrest, and prolonged flooding which hampered both operations and distribution.
The top-listed pharmaceutical companies are Square Pharmaceutical, Beximco Pharma, ACME Laboratories, and Renata. They failed to achieve the usual double-digit revenue growth.
Besides, only a small market share holder Beacon Pharma and Navana Pharma secured double-digit revenue growth, but their market share remains small while Square and Beximco managed to obtain profit growth, depending on associate companies.
Square Pharma
Square Pharmaceuticals, the country’s leading drug manufacturer, reported its first-ever revenue decline Tk7 crore for the July-September quarter.
As per the undisclosed financial statement for the July-September quarter, Square Pharma reported Tk1,774 crore revenue, which was Tk1,781 crore in the same quarter the previous year.
Though Square managed to post a 1.54 percent increase in profit to Tk609 crore during the quarter, largely supported by income from associate companies.
We could not achieve our target sale due to July-August mass upsurge and prolonged flooding, said Zahangir Alam, chief financial officer of Square Pharmaceuticals.
Beximco Pharma
Beximco Limited has reported a net loss of Tk113 crore in the July-September quarter of FY25, a substantial increase from the Tk70 crore loss recorded in the same period last year, as per the company’s latest financial statement.
Beximco Pharma
Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited posted an 8% profit increase, reaching Tk169.18 crore in the first quarter of FY25 compared to the previous year. Revenue also rose by around 5% to Tk1,171.38 crore.
Its earnings per share increased to Tk3.77, up from Tk3.48 in the same quarter last year. Its shares closed 5.56% higher at Tk89.20 on Thursday.
Iqbal Ahmed, managing director of Beximco Pharma, said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, “We have started the year with modest revenue growth amid ongoing macroeconomic challenges.”
Renata
Renata’s revenue grew approximately 7% year-on-year, reaching Tk1,009 crore for the quarter. However, its net profit cut down sharply by 44 percent to Tk56 crore compared to the same period last year.
Md Jubayer Alam, Company Secretary, told the New Nation that our net profit declined 41.6 percent due to increased the cost of raw material, labour, power and finance costs (interest expense and foreign exchange losses) and depreciation on incremental investments.
Renata’s shares closed at Tk656.50 yesterday, marking a slight decrease of 0.30% from the previous session.
Apart from this, ACI Limited accounted a 2 percent decrease in revenue to Tk2,970 crore, while it incurred a loss of Tk42 crore in the July-September quarter.
ACME Laboratories saw revenue rise by around 5 percent to Tk834 crore in the July-September period. However, net profit dropped by 17 percent to Tk55 crore during the quarter.
Beacon Pharma posted a 21% growth in revenue to Tk280 crore, though profit slightly decreased to Tk36 crore.
Navana Pharma reported a 31 percent increase in revenue to Tk213 crore, while profit rose by 19 percent to Tk13.37 crore.