Bangalore, April 28, 2009

Revenues Rs. 1,673 crs
EBITDA Rs. 388 crs
PAT (excluding MTM) Rs. 240 crs
MTM Losses : Rs. 147 crs

Biocon Limited today announced its financial performance for the financial year ended March 31, 2009.

Performance Highlights:

FY '09 (April '08 - March '09) v/s FY '08 (April '07 - March '08)

• Consolidated revenue (including AxiCorp) increases 53% from Rs. 1,090 crores to Rs. 1,673 crores.
• Consolidated revenue (excluding AxiCorp) increases 10% from Rs. 1,090 crores to Rs. 1,194 crores.
• Consolidated EBITDA (including AxiCorp) grew 16% from Rs. 335 crores to Rs. 388 crores
• Operating margins (excluding AxiCorp) maintained at 31% level.
• MTM Losses provided at Rs. 147 crores.
• PAT impacted by MTM, declines to Rs. 93 crores.
• R&D revenue expenditure increases by 27% to Rs. 60 crores.
• Services business (Syngene + Clinigene) deliver 28% sales growth
• Healthcare sales grew robustly with 6 key Biocon brands attaining Top 10 ranking in the Indian market.
• AxiCorp GmbH wins German AOK tender for Metformin.
• Earnings per share at Rs. 12.00 (Pre-MTM) and Rs. 4.65 (Post MTM) for the year.
• Board recommends dividend of 60% at Rs. 3/- per share, on the enlarged share capital (post Sep ‘08 bonus issue).
• Promoters' shareholding is unencumbered
• Oral Insulin enters Phase III clinical trials.
• US President Obama clears the way for Biogenerics: Biocon well positioned to address this opportunity.

Unpredictable Rupee depreciation induced by the global economic crisis has adversely impacted consolidated FY '09 earnings, wherein losses of Rs. 147 crores on account of MTM were provided.

Sales revenue from Research Services grew 28% to Rs. 225 crores from Rs. 176 crores, in FY '09. Syngene and Clinigene's EBITDA grew 21% to Rs. 70 crores, but MTM severely impacted profit earnings resulting in a loss of Rs. 18 crores for the year. 

Consolidated FY '09 earnings have also been burdened with the impact of added depreciation of Rs. 16 crores reflecting capital investments incurred to support future growth.

Note: The discussions in this release reflect the audited financial performance of Biocon Limited based on Indian GAAP on a consolidated basis. This considers the financial performance of Biocon Limited, its subsidiaries and its joint ventures.

Outlook

Commenting on the results, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon Limited, said:

Fiscal year '09 has been one of our most challenging years where foreign currency volatility made it difficult to manage a sharply depreciating Rupee resulting in large MTM losses. This has been learning for us and our new hedging strategy enables us to address the years ahead with a sense of confidence and resilience.

Highlights of the current business include, AxiCorp's performance which has contributed 29% to our top line and is well poised for continued growth in the German market. AxiCorp has recently won the German AOK tender for Metformin, which is an important milestone both in terms of making inroads into the Generics market as well as laying the foundation for our Diabetes franchise in Germany.

Both Syngene and Clinigene continue to forge ahead in their respective services led businesses, delivering a combined sales growth of 28%. 

Our branded formulations business under our Healthcare umbrella has made rapid strides in garnering market share for our key brands in Cardiology, Diabetology, Nephrology and Oncology. We see this as being a high growth segment in our business strategy going ahead. 

Our future prospects are being driven by a robust R&D engine where we are making good progress both in our bio-generics and novel biologics programs. This will call for significant incremental investments going forward which are expected to realize significant returns over the medium to long term.

Patient enrollment is well under way in our Phase III clinical trials for IN105 (Oral Insulin). Our T1h (Anti CD6) monoclonal antibody program has completed patient recruitment for Phase II clinical trials for both Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as Psoriasis.

On the bio-generics front, our development plan for regulatory acceptance by EMEA and USFDA of our recombinant human Insulin is also on track. Insulin analogue, Glargine is now set to enter into a similar development path for global registrations. 

President Obama's call for bio-generics and affordable healthcare heralds a new era for Biotherapeutics. Our pipeline of bio-generic monoclonal antibodies and Insulins supported by a strong manufacturing base provides us with a unique opportunity to build partnerships with key players in this segment.

We see the year ahead as one of lucrative opportunities on all fronts and we are confident that we will build strong and sustained shareholder value, which will profile Biocon as a bellwether stock in the Healthcare sector."