Ajanta Pharma reports 54.63 percent fall in profit, shares tank

Speaking about the drop, Ajanta Pharma Managing Director Yogesh Agrawal informed: "This quarter was a bit challenging for the company which was the result of pipeline filling in the corresponding quarter of the previous year which got normalised."

New Delhi: Shares of Ajanta Pharma went for a freefall to a drop of 6 per cent after the company reported a 54.63 per cent dip in consolidated net profit for the December 2018 quarter.

Ajanta Pharma Wednesday reported a 54.63 per cent dip in consolidated net profit at Rs 66.90 crore for the October-December quarter.

The company said in a filing to the BSE that it had posted a net profit of Rs 147.47 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Ajanta Pharma.

Consolidated revenue from operations of the company stood at Rs 485.11 crore for the quarter, against Rs 587.05 crore for the corresponding period a year ago

Responding to the filing, the shares of the drug firm tanked 6.02 per cent to close at Rs 1,023.95 on the BSE. Intra-day, the stock tumbled 7.30 per cent to Rs 1,010.

Speaking about the drop, Ajanta Pharma Managing Director Yogesh Agrawal informed: "This quarter was a bit challenging for the company which was the result of pipeline filling in the corresponding quarter of the previous year which got normalised."

This quarter also saw a significant drop in the anti-malarial business due to changing conditions of this business segment, he added.

Operational expenses of two new additional manufacturing facilities at Dahej and Guwahati during the year also weighed on the profitability growth," Agrawal said.

In a separate filing, the company said its board has approved a proposal for buyback of not exceeding 7.69 lakh shares at a price of Rs 1,300 per share in cash for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 100 crore.

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