Ranbaxy Labs beats estimates, as 3rd-qtr sales leap 31%

India’s largest drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories (AB: BO) has reported financial results for the quarter ended September 2012, showing that consolidated sales rose 31% to 26.51 billion rupees ($480 million), with profit after tax of 7.54 billion compared with a loss of 4.65 billion rupees in the like year-earlier period, and beating consensus forecasts of 2.92 billion rupees.

Ranbaxy, which is 64% owned by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo (TYO: 4568), said that profitability below the EBITDA line in the quarter was favorably impacted largely by mark-to-market (MTM) gain on long dated derivatives contracts and foreign currency loans owing to a stronger rupee; the impact was adverse in third-quarter 2011.

Commenting on the business results, Arun Sawhney, chief executive and managing director, of Ranbaxy, said: "Ranbaxy's business performance continued to strengthen as planned even in a volatile regulatory and business environment as our focus on key markets, improvement in manufacturing, R&D productivity and heightened level of cost consciousness helped our strong performance. We are confident that these measures will help further strengthen our base business."