Lupin on Thursday said its consolidated loss widened to ₹835 crore in Q3 December 2019 quarter, higher than net loss of ₹151.75 crore in the same quarter December 2018.

Lupin’s sales for the quarter dropped 2.75 per cent to ₹3,716.09 crore from ₹3,821.19 crore in the same quarter last year, primarily on account of a fall in sales in North America and of active pharmaceutical constituent.

Tax expenses for the quarter jumped to ₹767 crore from ₹245.40 crore.

Exceptional losses for the quarter stood at ₹288.68 crore which were less than ₹342.22 crore in exceptional losses in the same quarter last year.

Losses on exceptional items pertained to impairment of ₹1,579.77 crore related to certain acquired IPs and profit ₹1,291 crore on divestment of the company’s entire stake in Japan-based subsidiary Kyowa Pharmaceutical Industry Co Ltd.

EBITDA slipped 27.6 per cent to ₹522.70 crore year on year. The EBITDA margin stood at 14.1 per cent in December 2019 quarter compared with 18.9 per cent in the same quarter December 2018.

Managing Director Nilesh Gupta said, “There are a lot of one-times within the numbers this quarter. The reportable performance was considerably littered by exceptional events, together with the impairment of the Gavis portfolio and our divestiture of Kyowa. Sequentially, the profit within the quarter was wedged by lumpiness in a number of the pay however we have a tendency to see improved margins hereon.”

Gupta said that the resilience of the India branded business, stabilisation of the US generic base business and growth in new launches can drive growth for the company. “Quality remains our top-most priority and that we are creating steady progress on remediation measures across our producing footprint,” he said.