India's Glenmark Life Sciences posts higher Q1 revenue on API boost

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Glenmark Life Sciences posted a higher first-quarter revenue on Thursday, driven by strong demand in its mainstay active pharmaceuticals ingredients business.

The Mumbai-based company said revenue from operations rose 2% to 5.89 billion rupees ($70.3 million). Its API business, which accounts for almost all of its revenue, climbed 6.2% from last year.

APIs are key biologically active elements in a drug and are responsible for producing desired health effects.

However, the company's profit fell 18% to 1.11 billion rupees, as it was impacted by inventory-related expenses worth 414.3 million rupees.

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KEY CONTEXT

Glenmark Life, like other Indian API makers, has been benefiting from increasing demand in its key European and U.S. markets and is expected to continue benefiting as global drugmakers seek to reduce their reliance on China.

Glenmark Life has over 130 APIs in its portfolio across key therapy areas such as cardiovascular, oncology and anti-infectives.

PEER COMPARISON

Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA growth (%) growth rating* analysts price yield

(%) target** (%)

Glenmark Life 18.26 12.05 13.30 15.44 Buy 4 0.94 3.88

Sciences

Granules India 20.66 11.68 12.76 36.42 Strong 4 1.12 0.29

Buy

Laurus Labs 48.16 20.09 16.13 103.08 Hold 11 1.12 0.18

Sun 33.41 24.63 10.25 10.95 Buy 30 1.01 0.85

Pharmaceutical

Industries

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL TO JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.7804 Indian rupees

($1 = 83.7580 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Tasim Zahid)