Biocon Q3 Results: Reports Profit, Beats Estimates

Biocon Ltd. reported a consolidated net profit in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, beating analysts' estimates.

The drugmaker had a profit of Rs 753 crore in the October-December quarter, as against a loss of Rs 21 crore over the same period last year, according to an exchange filing on Thursday. That compares with the Rs 153-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Sequentially, the profit rose 336%.

According to its press release, the readjusted net profit excluding exceptional items was Rs 660 crore. Exceptional items during Q3 FY24 included a net gain of Rs 21 crore. Net of tax and minority interest, and exceptional gains, it amounted to Rs 16 crore.

• Revenue from operations rose 34% to Rs 3,954 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 3,674 crore).

• Operating profit was up 44% to Rs 927 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 834 crore).

• Operating margin was at 23.44% vs 21.9% (Bloomberg estimate: 22.70%).

The revenue from operations includes income from the divesture of two non-core business assets of Biocon Biologics' Branded Formulations India business, amounting to Rs 350 crore and licensing income, the company disclosed in the filing.

During the quarter, the company disclosed that its other income includes a gain of Rs 456 crore, mainly from the fair valuation of Biocon’s holding in Bicara Therapeutics, resulting from Bicara’s Series C financing.

• Revenue from generics was down 7% at Rs 703 crore and contributed to 17% of total revenue. "The year-on-year performance was muted on account of continued pricing pressure that impacted customer offtake in our API business," Siddharth Mittal, managing director of Biocon, said in the filing.

• Biosimilars—Biocon Biologics Ltd.—reported a growth of 65% at Rs 2,483 crore, accounting for 62% of the revenue. Shreehas Tambe, chief executive officer at Biocon Biologics, said that there was robust demand for their products, with market share increasing across geographies. "We onboarded new customers and won several key tenders."

• Research services—Syngene—reported a growth of 9% at Rs 854 crore and made up 21% of the quarterly revenue.

• Net research and development expenses were down 2% over last year at Rs 329 crore.

"A key milestone this quarter was the successful conclusion of the transition of the acquired business by Biocon Biologics and a prepayment of ~$200 million towards the acquisition-related debt reduction," said Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in the press note.

"Steady market shares for key biosimilars in the U.S. and EU were complemented by the Emerging Markets performance, which saw a number of new product launches and tender wins," she said.

Shares of Biocon closed 2.05% lower at Rs 284.45 apiece on the BSE, before the results were announced, as compared with a 1% decline in the benchmark Sensex.