Strong 3rd-quarter 2011 sales growth at Lundbeck, but write-off hits profit

Danish CNS drug specialist Lundbeck (LUND: DC) has reported a strong set of financial results for the third quarter of 2011, with revenue rising 10% to of 3.98 billion Danish kroner ($734.9 million) compared to the same quarter last year. The growth was driven by increasing revenue from key products and a milestone payment related to the launch of escitalopram in Japan, noted the company, whose shares moved up 3.1% to 107.20 kroner in early trading this morning, as the figure beat analysts’ expectation of 3.82 billion kroner.

Operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was 1.26 billion kroner, an increase of 12% corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 31.7%. As announced earlier, said Lundbeck, write offs of 341 million kroner related to restructuring in R&D have been included for the quarter, as a result of which profit from operations (EBIT) decreased 22% to 660 million kroner for the quarter. Earnings per share came in at 1.80 kroner compared with 3.17 kroner in the like 2010 quarter.

Financial guidance for the full year is unchanged compared to the previous quarter, when Lundbeck said it anticipated full year revenue and EBITDA to be in the upper end of the guidance ranges of 15.3-15.8 billion kroner and 4.3-4.6 billion kroner respectively.