Parag Agarwal
Analyst · Kunal Dhamesha from Macquarie Capital
Thank you, Amit, and greetings to everyone for the current festive season. This quarter, we had strong financial performance with higher server sales, PBT and EBITDA in our quarter. The performance has been supported by the launch of lenalidomide capsules in the U.S. and rebound of Russia performance over last quarter. Let me take you through the details for the quarter. For this section, all the amounts are translated into U.S. dollar at a continuous translation rate of INR81.37, which is the rate as of September 30, 2022. Consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at INR6,306 crores, that is US$775 million and grew by 9% year-on-year basis and by 21% on a sequential quarter basis. In the same quarter of last year, we had high coverage product sales, adjusted for which we have grown in high teens in this quarter. Consolidated gross profit margin for this quarter stood at 69.1%, an increase of 55 basis points over previous year and 920 basis points sequentially. The gross margins were mainly aided by favorable product mix and production linked incentive recognition. However, it was partially offset by a provision made on COVID product inventory as the sales on these products have reduced significantly. Gross margin for the global generics and PSAI businesses were at 65.4% and 3.6%, respectively, for the quarter. PSAI gross margins were primarily impacted due to inventory provision on COVID products and adverse leverage on manufacturing overhead on a lower sales base. We expect it to improve in the coming quarters. The SG&A spend for the quarter is INR1,656 crores, that is US$204 million, an increase of 4% year-on-year and 7% quarter-on-quarter, which is in line with business growth. As a percentage of sales, our SG&A has been at 26.3%, which is lower by 140 basis points year-on-year and 340 basis points sequentially. The R&D spend for the quarter is INR487 crores, that is US$60 million and is at 7.7% of sales. We have been making good progress on our R&D pipeline in line with our business strategy. Further, while we continue to drive productivity, we have been investing it back to strengthen our development pipeline, building marketing capability and digitalization. The net finance expense for the quarter is INR16 crores, that is US$2 million. We have been able to manage well the risk arising from the ForEx fluctuations in the current volatile environment. The EBITDA for the quarter is INR1,932 crores, that is US$37 million, and the EBITDA margin was strong at 30.6%. Our profit before tax stood at INR1,611 crores. That is US$198 million, which is a growth of 27% year-on-year and a growth of 10% quarter-on-quarter. Effective tax rate for the quarter has been at 30.9% due to the FX effects arising from jurisdictional rates. We expect our normal ETR to be in the range of 25% to 26%. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR1,113 crores, that is US$137 million. Reported EPS for the quarter is INR66.89. Operating working capital increased by INR322 crores, which is US$40 million against that on June 30, 2022. Our working capital base is due by 15 days due to optimization of inventory across our businesses and factoring of receivables in Russia. Our capital investment during the quarter stood at INR251 crores, which is US$31 million. The free cash flow during this quarter was INR580 crores, which is $71 million. Consequently, we now have a net cash surplus of INR1,373 crores in that is US$159 million as on September 30, 2022. Foreign currency cash flow hedges in the form of derivatives to the U.S. dollar are approximately US$402 million, largely held around the range of INR78.8 to 81.7% to the dollar maturing in the next 12 months, 4,320 million at the rate of INR0.99 2.4 million at a rate of AD56.04 and South African brand $67 million at the rate of INR4.82 to South Africa and maturing in the next 6 months. With this, I now request Iris to take you through the key business highlights.