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Cipla hopes for better performance next year
Production: A worker at the Cipla Quality Chemicals Industries Ltd drug production line in Kampala. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- In an interview yesterday, the chief executive officer of CiplaQci, Mr Nevin Bradford said the company’s financial position in the coming years will be profitable.
Cipla investors have reason for optimism after a rough ride over the past two years.
The planned commencement of manufacturing new lines of medicine and new export markets are expected to shore up the company’s financial streams.
Cipla Quality Chemicals (Ciplaqci) which has had difficulties in its share price at Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), is expected to incur a loss for the year ending March 31 2020, due to delayed collection from the Zambian Government.
The company’s gross margin was largely affected due to change in product mix in the orders received from the international donor organisation.
Ciplaqci traded at Shs101 on May 5 and on May 6 it traded at Shs102 per share. This is lower than its Initial Public Offer price in September 2017 at Shs256.5 per share.
Ciplaqci shareholders have made a loss in share price of Shs154.5 with no dividend paid out to them last year due to a reduction in the company’s profit.
In an interview yesterday, the chief executive officer of CiplaQci, Mr Nevin Bradford said the company’s financial position in the coming years will be profitable.
“We have started the manufacture of Chloroquine and a Covid-19 therapy, we hope our profit will significantly improve in the near future,” he said.
Its share profit declined from Shs44.627 billion in 2018 to Shs6.785 billion, which its executives said begun in the first half of 2019 financial results which indicated a shift in trends in revenue structure following the Global Fund’s cutback on anti-malaria drugs, besides delays in payments by the Zambian government, and it was likely to continue affecting the profitability al through 2019.
The chief executive officer of Crested Capital, Mr Robert Robert H. Baldwi told Daily Monitor yesterday that Cipla’s challenges as per the company’s own statement, mainly revolve around Zambia and provisioning for non-payment.
