Unichem earmarks Rs 200 crore capex for current fiscal

NEW DELHI: Drug maker Unichem Laboratories has earmarked a capital expenditure of around Rs 200 crore for the current fiscal, most of which would go into the company's upcoming API plant in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

"In the current year we are looking at around Rs 150-200 crore of capex which may get spilled over to FY2018 also," Unichem Laboratories VP Finance and CFO Rakesh Parikh said in an analyst call.

The API unit is coming up and it has a major capital expenditure, he said, adding that "the work out there is going on in full swing".

Commenting on the expansion of its Goa plant, Parikh said the facility will be commissioned in the current quarter.

Built in 1997, the company's Goa facility today caters to 100 per cent of the export market. The plant is approved by various regulatory bodies including US Food and Drug Administration and UK's Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

"Significant amount of capital expenditure was incurred last year (on the Goa plant) and the same is the case with our biosciences pilot plant," he added.

The other expenditure is more or less maintenance and de-bottlenecking work at the existing plants, Parikh said.