The Hindu Business Line : Indoco Q1 net up 17 pc

A HEALTHY sales in the domestic market and exports have combined to boost the bottomline of Indoco Remedies Ltd by 17.4 per cent for the three-month period ended September 2005.

Indoco posted a net profit of Rs 6.42 crore for the first quarter ended September 2005 compared to Rs 5.47 crore in the same period the previous year.

The company posted a 24 per cent growth in net sales at Rs 52.9 crore (Rs 42.6 crore).

"We have done well in the first quarter ended September 2005 not only in international business but also on the domestic front where Indoco traditionally has a stronghold," the Indoco Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Suresh G. Kare, said in a statement.

At a time when other companies in the segment have been struggling to keep their performance afloat, Indoco's domestic sales grew 24 per cent, Mr Sundeep V. Bambolkar, Indoco's Director, Finance and Operations, told Business Line.

The company expects to end the fiscal year in June 2006 with total revenues of about 270 crore, of which about Rs 210 crore will come from domestic sales. The rest would be from exports and the sale of active pharmaceutical ingredients, he said.

At present domestic sales accounts for over 85 per cent of the company's total revenues, but Indoco expects to level that out at 50:50 in another six years, he said. This would not be at the expense of the domestic base, he added. Indoco expects to grow its domestic sales by 15 per cent every year for the next two or three years, he said. The company is looking at acquisition opportunities, particularly at brands in the Rs 10-40-crore range. The search is for life-style brands or those in the segments that Indoco already has a presence, he said.

Pact with Paddock Lab on cards

MUMBAI: Indoco expects to ink one more agreement with US-based Paddock Laboratories Inc, with whom it already has a tie-up for an ophthalmic product.

Indoco's Mr Bambolkar said that the second product would also be an ophthalmic one and the deal would be formalised in a month. As part of the existing agreement, the company expects to file in the US by June 2006, for permission to sell in the market.

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