Duopharma quarterly net profit at Rm14mil
PETALING JAYA: Duopharma Biotech Bhd posted a 6.2% dip in net profit for the first quarter of the financial year of 2020 (FY20) due to weaker ringgit against the US dollar.
The pharmaceutical group reported a net profit of Rm13.56mil compared with Rm14.47mil in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
It said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday that the strengthening of the greenback against the ringgit had resulted in unrealised foreign exchange (forex) losses on its US dollar-denominated borrowings.
The net forex loss was Rm4.5mil in the first quarter of FY20.
However, the group’s revenue in the January-march period rose by 5.54% year-onyear to Rm158.71mil.
According to its group managing director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar, the group’s improved revenue was due to higher demand for Duopharma’s pharmaceutical products from the private health sector.
Duopharma’s earnings per share in the first quarter was 1.98 sen, as compared to 2.19 sen per share a year earlier.
Similar to the corresponding quarter in FY19, Duopharma’s board of directors has not recommended any interim dividend for the January-march 2020 period.
Commenting on the group’s outlook, Leonard Ariff said in a separate statement that the year 2020 is expected to be more challenging than previous years.
“However, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we remain cautiously optimistic of our FY20 financial performance. The recent Budget 2020 has seen an increase of 6.6% in allocation for the healthcare sector to Rm30.6bil, this is the highest ever allocation in Malaysian history.
“Additional allocations have also been made to the Health Ministry as a part of its national Covid-19 countermeasures, which further fuels an optimistic outlook since 50% of our sales are to the public sector,” he said.
Leonard Ariff also pointed out that Duopharma has been informed that contract periods for the supply of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products to hospitals, clinics and others under the government have been extended for twenty-five months, commencing Dec 1, 2019 until Dec 31, 2021.
In addition, the contract period of the offtake agreement for the supply of human insulin formulations has been extended for a year, commencing Dec 2, 2019 until Dec 1, 2020.
“These extensions augur well for the group as they stabilise a significant portion of the group’s revenue for the said period.
“What’s more, it enables the group to mobilise our resources to intensify our foray into specialty products as one of our strategies moving forward to create a pool of niche products,” he said.