Granules profit up 7.8% to Rs 120 crore boosted by drug ingredient business

Granules India reported a 7.8% rise in fourth-quarter profit, spurred by strong growth in its business of making active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for drugs.

The company's consolidated net profit rose to Rs 120 crore ($14.7 million) in the quarter ended March 31, from 1.11 billion rupees a year earlier.

Granules's consolidated revenue from operations rose 16% to Rs 1196 crore, but a 17% jump in its total expenses ate into the profit growth.

The company's revenue from finished dosages, its largest division, rose 16% year-on-year, but that was easily outpaced by its API segment, its second-biggest, where revenue jumped 48%.

Granules reported a 38% jump in sales of paracetamol, which is both an API and a ready-for-consumption drug it sells only in the European Union.

However, the company's biggest market is the United States, from where it gets 31%. The drugs it sells in the country includes skeletal muscle relaxant methocarbamol, whose sales surged 60% in the quarter.

Last month, Glenmark Life Sciences Ltd posted a 48% rise in quarterly profit, driven by growth in its mainstay API business.

Granules's shares were down 1.6% after the results. ($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon; Editing by Sonia Cheema)