The financial performance for the third quarter ended 31st December 2007 has not been very good when compared on a QoQ basis but consistent when compared on YoY.
YoY, the company posted a net sales of Rs.226.35 crore, a rise of 15% YoY. Of this, Rs.177.42 crore was via vaccines, its mainline of business, Rs.49.84 crore came in via formulations and Rs.4 lakhs via its R&D. EBIDTA rose 22% at Rs.59.60 crore. Interest outgo jumped up more than three times to Rs.4.72 crore. PBT was up 13% at Rs.43.68 crore and PAT was up 6% at Rs.28.93 crore. QoQ, PAT was actually down 10%.
Hopefully, the coming quarters will now be good for the company with many positives happening. It has entered into an MOU with Punjab University, Chandigarh for research collaboration to identify a lead molecule with an aim to bring a drug superior to existing marketed products in me therapeutic area of Psychiatric Disorders.
It has been pre-qualified by WHO for supplying their innovative combination vaccines for pediatric immunization- EasyFour (DTP + Hib) and Ecovac (DTP + Hep B). The company is already a pre-qualified supplier of OPV and Hepatitis-B vaccines to UN agencies. With this pre-qualification by WHO, Panacea Biotec would now be able to participate in a large global market of combination vaccines for paediatric immunization.
The company is setting up a new vaccine production plant at Baddi, H.P.at a capex of over Rs.100 crore. It will have a capacity of more than 1 billion doses per annum, to cater to domestic and global markets. Once this goes on stream in FY09, the total capacity at Panacea would be two billion doses per annum.
The company is also into R&D in a big way. It recently opened its fifth R&D centre in Navi Mumbai. The company invests around 6% of its annual turnover into R&D though it is yet to start giving good returns.
Currently quoted at Rs.344, a good stock to invest and if invested, hold on.