Biocon posts good Q2 result; shares up

Biocon Ltd, India's top listed biotech firm, declared better than expected second-quarter results with a 4.7-per cent rise in quarterly net profit.

The Bangalore-based company said consolidated net profit rose to Rs90 crore in the fiscal second quarter ended September from Rs86 crore a year in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 19.3 per cent to Rs642 crore from Rs537 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Thomson Reuters says analysts had on an average estimated net profit at Rs86.3 crore. The better results sent Biocon's shares up over 3 per cent this morning on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The year-on-year increase in net profit was 5 per cent in the September quarter on higher growth across business verticals. On a sequential basis, profit grew 13.92 per cent over a net profit of Rs79 crore in the April-June quarter.

Biocon also said GE Capital Corp would pick up a 7.7-per cent stake in the Indian drug-maker's research services unit Syngene for Rs125 crore.

"This (investment) takes us closer to our commitment of taking Syngene through an IPO (initial public offer) at the most opportune time," Biocon chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in a statement.