Ranbaxy’s Net Down 91%

Due to foreign exchange losses of Rs 193 crore, Indian pharma giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd suffered a loss in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30, which fell more than 91% year-on-year to Rs 22.9 crore.

On Tuesday, Omesh Sethi, Ranbaxy’s chief financial officer said that the company’s net profit stood at Rs 266 crore in the same quarter last year, with foreign exchange gains of Rs 201 crore.

In April-June quarter, the compnay’s net profit was little changes at Rs 161 crore against Rs 160 crore in the same period last fiscal, if the one time forex loss was excluded.

Talking about the company’s operating margin, except for forex gain was improved marginally at 16.8% sales in the quarter from 16.4% in the same quarter last year.

Malvinder Mohan Singh said, “Ranbaxy hopes to keep its operating margin at 17% or higher for its fiscal ending December 31, 2008.”

He further said, “We will see a stronger growth in the second half (of the current year)”.

During the April-June 2008 quarter, the company reported forex loses of Rs 193.1 crore during on account of forex fluctuations, as compared to the gain of Rs 201.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.