Mumbai: Axis Bank Ltd, India's third-biggest private sector lender by assets, reported a 19 percent increase in second-quarter profit, in line with estimates, while its bad loans remained stable.
Net profit rose to Rs 19.16 billion ($295 million) for the three months to Sept. 30 from Rs 16.11 billion a year earlier, the Mumbai-based bank said in a statement.
Analysts on average had expected a net profit of Rs 19.2 billion, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans were little changed from the previous quarter at 1.38 percent.
Mumbai: Lupin Ltd, India's third-largest drugmaker by sales, hopes to win approvals for some key products in its largest market, the United States, by the end of this year, after fewer product launches pushed second-quarter profit below estimates. The company's net profit for the July-September quarter slumped 35 percent to Rs 4.09 billion ($62.97 million). That was much below the Rs 5.68 billion analysts on average estimated, according to Thomson Reuters data. U.S. sales fell about 9 percent to Rs 11.55 billion.
Lupin bought U.S. firm GAVIS Pharmaceuticals LLC for $880 million in its largest-ever acquisition in July, gaining access to portfolio of speciality generic drugs that are harder to develop and where competition is usually limited.
Mumbai: Miner Vedanta Ltd, posted a 40.6 percent drop in its quarterly net profit, as continued weakness in commodity prices in global markets impacted its earnings from oil and gas and mining operations. Vedanta's consolidated net profit in the September quarter dropped to Rs 9.74 billion ($149.94 million) from Rs 16.40 billion, while net sales fell 16 percent to Rs 163.49 billion, said a company statement on Tuesday.
Vedanta Chief Executive Tom Albanese, has previously said the company's offer was fair, dismissing reports that opposition from minority shareholders in Cairn India, including ex-parent Cairn Energy, could scupper the deal.
Zurich
The $390 million settlement, that pharma major Novartis agreed to pay in order to waive allegations in US for receiving kickbacks for pushing sales of some drugs, pushed its third-quarter net income down 42 percent to $1.8 billion. Novartis's underlying results also missed analyst forecasts as weakness at its eye-care business Alcon and a strong dollar offset the benefits of an enlarged cancer drug portfolio acquired from GlaxoSmithKline. Chief Executive Joe Jimenez told reporters Novartis had made the disputed payments to ensure patients took the drugs, including treatments to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, but U.S. government attorneys disagreed.
