Biocon Q4 Profit Declines By 4% To Rs 283 Crore

Biocon Ltd on Thursday reported a 4 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 283.9 crore in the fourth quarter ended on March 31, 2022.

The company, which posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 296.4 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal, has appointed former HSBC India Chairperson Naina Lal Kidwai as an independent director, Biocon Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated revenue from operations in the fourth quarter stood at Rs 2,408.8 crore as against Rs 1,842.1 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

Total expenses were higher at Rs 2,039.6 crore as against Rs 1,624.6 crore in the same period the previous year, the company said.

For the fiscal ended March 31, 2022, Biocon Ltd said its consolidated net profit was at Rs 771.6 crore as compared to Rs 846.2 crore in the previous fiscal.

Consolidated revenue from operations for FY22 was at Rs 8,184 crore as compared to Rs 7,143.1 crore in the previous fiscal.

Commenting on the performance, Biocon and Biocon Biologics Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said, "FY22 was a transformational year for Biocon. Key strategic moves in our Biosimilars business position us for long-term growth and value creation for our stakeholders."

She further said, "We believe that the two strategic transactions, with Viatris and Serum Institute Life Sciences, will position Biocon Biologics as a world-leading, unique, fully integrated biologics company with a strong differentiated portfolio of biosimilars and vaccines."

The company said its board of directors has recommended a final dividend at the rate of 10 per cent of the face value per share, for the financial year ended March 31, 2022.

The generics business comprising active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and generic formulations business posted revenue of Rs 717 crore in the fourth quarter, 26 per cent from the year-ago period, while the same for FY22 stood at Rs 2,341 crore, Biocon said.

"Our FY22 performance (of generics business) was muted, largely due to supply and operational challenges earlier in the year, as well as headwinds in the form of pricing pressures, and escalating costs of solvents, raw material and logistics," Biocon Ltd CEO & Managing Director Siddharth Mittal said.

He said the company will commence work on important new projects in the current fiscal – a large scale synthetic facility in Hyderabad and an injectable facility in Bangalore; as well as expand the company's fermentation capacities in Bangalore, all of which will provide further impetus to future growth.

The biosimilar business under Biocon Biologics Ltd had a revenue of Rs 982 crore in the fourth quarter, up 48 per cent from the same period of the previous fiscal. For the full year FY22, revenue from the segment was at Rs 3,464 crore, up 24 per cent, the company said.

"The 48 per cent growth in revenue this quarter was a result of improved performance across developed and emerging markets, driven by strong market share gains of our interchangeable bGlargine in the USA," Biocon Biologics Managing Director Arun Chandavarkar said.

Whilst net R&D spend was at 9 per cent of revenues in FY22, Chandavarkar said,"We expect this to ramp up in FY23 commensurate with the progress of our rich and diverse pipeline which provides Biocon Biologics a sustainable growth opportunity in the years ahead."

He further said, "The two strategic transactions with Serum and Viatris announced in FY22, upon likely closure in the second half of the calendar year 2022, will propel us on our path to be a leading vertically integrated biosimilars company globally and will also support the higher investments in developing our pipeline."