The country’s top biotech company Biocon beat street expectations to post a five per cent increase in second quarter net profit to Rs 90 crore.
Biocon’s Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw also announced at a press conference that a subsidiary of GE Capital will pick up a 7.69 per cent stake for Rs 125 crore in the company’s Syngene, a contract research unit which offers integrated drug discovery and development services.
With this investment, Syngene’s valuation will be about Rs 1,624 crore ahead of its market listing which is expected in another two years. Biocon is valued at about $1 billion.
Shaw said higher net profit was largely because of volume growth as well as better export realisation on account of a depreciating rupee. Total revenues were up 19 per cent to Rs 642 crore. Its branded formulations business grew 42 per cent to Rs 91 crore, while biopharma grew eight per cent to Rs 372 crore.
R&D expenditure has also increased 54 per cent to Rs 79 crore during the first half of this fiscal, which Shaw said should be seen as an investment. She said the global phase III trials of its recombinant human insulin for type-I diabetes had shown positive results. The multi-centre study was conducted in nearly 300 patients.
Syngene’s Director Peter Bains said GE Capital’s investment will enable the unit to expand its integrated discovery and development services platform.