Indian drugmaker Torrent Pharma’s quarterly profit jumps on strong demand

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(Reuters) -India’s Torrent Pharma reported a 20% jump in its first-quarter profit on Monday, driven by demand for drugs used to treat long-term conditions.

The firm’s consolidated net profit rose to 5.48 billion rupees ($63.2 million) for the quarter ended June 30, from 4.57 billion rupees year ago.

Its total revenue grew 11% to 31.78 billion rupees, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 31.57 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.

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KEY CONTEXT

Torrent Pharma, which makes drugs for treating conditions such as diabetes, infections, and cancer, continued to benefit from strong domestic demand for these medicines.

Revenue from India, which contributed around 56% to the total, jumped 11% from a year earlier. This was led by strong demand for Torrent’s therapies such as cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal and anti-infectives.

Diabetes, which is one of Torrent’s key therapy areas, led demand in the Indian pharmaceutical market, which grew 8% in June, according to data from India Ratings and Research.

PEER COMPARISON

Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment

months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to

TDA growth growth rating* analyst price

(%) (%) s target**

Torrent 45.27 27.12 12.56 25.29 Buy 28 0.98

Pharmaceuticals

Ltd

Mankind Pharma Ltd 46.41 27.72 18.05 13.86 Buy 15 0.96

J B Chemicals and 31.76 20.84 12.42 18.96 Buy 12 0.86

Pharmaceuticals

Ltd

Glenmark 32.28 19.66 12.35 25.06 Buy 9 1.02

Pharmaceuticals

Ltd

* Mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell ** Ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL TO JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

— $1 = 86.6530 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)