Hikal Ltd., a preferred long-term partner for leading global life sciences companies, has posted 16% growth in its Q2 F21 revenue at Rs 372 crores compared to the corresponding period last year. During the quarter, the company also registered 22% YoY growth in EBITDA to Rs 71 crore and 68% growth Profit Before Tax (PBT) to Rs 42 crore.

The growth in revenue is due to the higher offtake of existing products and new market opportunities. Also, the improvement of EBITDA is due to higher volumes and sales in pharma and an improved product mix.

During the quarter, the pharmaceuticals sales were up by 34% to Rs 279.3 crore compared to Rs 208.2 crore in the corresponding period of previous year. The company’s strong growth in pharma division was led by strong volume off-take supported by new capacity at Bangalore unit which was commissioned late last year.

However, crop protection sales were lower by 18% at Rs 92.6 crore as compared to Rs 112.8 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. “The revenues were lower than planned, as a major long-term contract manufacturing customer deferred the shipments worth Rs 40 crore from Q2 to Q3 due to COVID -19. The annual sales of the crop protection division will not be impacted,” the company said in a media release and added that there was delay in completion of capital expenditure projects due to adverse impact of the pandemic.

“The overall performance of the Q2 has been better than the corresponding period last year as well as the previous quarter due to higher sales offtake which resulted in better capacity utilization in our pharma division. Our EBITDA margins improved on higher sales and significant operational efficiencies,” Jai Hiremath, CMD, Hikal, said.

He also said that Hikal’s capax programme, after a brief disruption due to COVID-19 lockdown, has resumed and is going at full swing. “We expect to start commissioning several projects during Q1 of FY22. We are implementing several business excellence initiatives across our company to enable us to deliver sustainable growth in both our top-line and bottom-line in the near term. We also continue to explore new opportunities with customers and alternative raw material supplies in the domestic market under ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative of the government,” he added.

Based on the current operating environment, Hikal expects a better performance in H2. “We expect to close the current financial year with better financial performance as compared to the last financial year. We see several tailwinds in our business and as we start getting our new capacity on-stream, we expect revenues and profitability to grow faster in next several years. Our strong customer relations, new business opportunities as well as healthy product pipeline will enable us to renew our growth trajectory over the medium to long term,” Hiremath said.