Hikal shares advance 12%, hit 52-week high on growth prospects

Shares of Hikal moved higher by 12 per cent to Rs 186.85, also its record high on the BSE on Thursday, on growth prospects of the company. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.78 per cent at 38,995 points at 03:02 pm. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 182.40, touched on August 26, 2020. It was trading close to its record high of Rs 207, hit in September 2018.

Looking forward, the company is witnessing improvement in capacity utilisation and higher volume off-take by its customers for both pharmaceuticals and crop protection divisions. The management said it continues to be positive on the growth prospects of both the divisions based on the new opportunities arising due to the supply chain de-risking strategy of its customers.

Hikal offers solutions across the life sciences value chain. It provides active ingredients, intermediates and R&D services to global pharmaceuticals, animal health, biotech, crop protection, and speciality chemical companies.

For the April-June quarter (Q1FY21), Hikal reported a 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in its consolidated profit before tax (PBT) at Rs 27.50 crore, due to a 12 per cent YoY drop in revenue at Rs 352.8 crore. The performance for the quarter has been impacted by a COVID expense of Rs 4.7 crore towards employee benefits and other additional costs incurred to mitigate the effect of the pandemic and help society at large, the company said.

“The company believes it can achieve the target of sustainable growth in the coming years. we have a strong product pipeline in the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) business which has and continues to give us traction with existing and several new customers globally,” Hikal said in the 2019-20 annual report.