We anticipate margins between 22% to 23% for the full year: Glenn Saldanha, Glenmark Ltd.

Glenn Saldanha, Chairman and Managing Director, Glenmark Ltd., in an interview with ET Now, speaks about the company’s performance in the quarter gone by and expectations for the next. Excerpts:-


How would you characterise the quarter gone by for you?

It was a very good quarter for us all in all we had revenues of Rs 868 crore. A growth of 27%. Each of our businesses clearly outperformed on most of the businesses. We had good growth coming out of Latin America or rest of the world. US Generics grew at 37% so all in all it is a very strong quarter for the company as a whole.

Overall in terms of licensing income, in terms of new products how is it shaped up?

We had a deal with Sanofi Aventis which concluded in this quarter on GBR 500. It was a $613 million deal. We got $50 million upfront, $25 we booked in Q1 and $25 million will get booked in the second quarter that is based on the cash we received. That has positively also impacted the numbers. Other than that we continue to make good progress on the research pipeline. We also concluded a supply agreement with Salix recently which will impact Q2, overall Q1 was a very robust quarter for us.

Are you going to get the market is talking about $50 million that you would get from plant up-gradation advance from Salix that will come in when?

We should receive the money anytime either today or tomorrow from Salix for the plant up-gradation. That is $50 million that we will receive.

Could you give us an update in terms of the current margins for the quarter that you have clocked in and what you would expect going forward?

Our EBITDA margins in Q1 with out-licensing income is about 34% and without out-licensing is about 24% on the base business. The margins look pretty strong. We anticipate margins being at about 22% to 23% for the full year and that is what we guided towards. Q1 has been ahead of the guidance but we still maintain, we will end up with 22%-23% EBITDA margin for the full year.

For the markets its concern that your debt levels are closer to Rs 1,900 crore any plans to bring down these debt levels?

As on today after we have received Rs 220 crore from Sanofi and with the Salix money and all that coming into effect our debt level currently would stand at something like Rs 1,650 crore, so there has been a substantial reduction there already as a Q1. By the end of this year we anticipate we will end up bringing it down by another Rs 200 odd crore, so we should be at about Rs 1,450 crore by the end of the year.

Any fundraising plans in the near term?

We have no fundraising plans at all currently.