Duopharma Biotech Berhad has recorded a revenue of RM 158.71 million for the first quarter of the year. In an announcement to Bursa Malaysia, the pharmaceutical company stated that the profit before taxation came in at RM 17.73 million for the quarter, marginally lower from the RM 8.79 million posted in the previous corresponding period.
This was due to the strengthening of the USD against the MYR, resulting in unrealized forex losses on borrowings in USD in the Group’s loan portfolio.
Group managing director, Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar factored in the higher demand for the Group’s pharmaceutical products from the private health sector as a result of the robust performance.
Similar to the corresponding quarter in 2019, Duopharma Biotech’s Board of Directors has not recommended any interim dividend for the quarter.
On Feb 13, the Board of Directors had approved that the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) will apply to the Final Single-Tier Dividend of 5.0 sen per share, if the dividend is approved by the shareholders at the Company’s upcoming Annual General Meeting on June 17.
The Company will also seek the approval of its shareholders for the issuance of new Duopharma Biotech Shares pursuant to the DRP in the Annual General Meeting.
“We foresee that 2020 to be more challenging than previous years. However, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we remain cautiously optimistic of our FY2020 financial performance” said Leonard Ariff.
“The recent budget 2020 has seen an increase of 6.6 percent in allocation for healthcare sector to RM30.6 billion, this is the highest ever allocation in Malaysian history,” he said, adding: “Additional allocations have also been made to the Ministry of Health as a part of its national Covid-19 countermeasures, which further fuels an optimistic outlook since approximately 50% of our sales are to the public sector.”
Furthermore, the group managing director also shared that the Duopharma Biotech Group has been informed that contract periods for the supply of pharmaceutical and/or non-pharmaceutical products to hospitals, clinics and others under the Malaysian Government have been extended for 25 months.
The contract period of the Off-Take Agreement for the supply of human insulin formulations has also been extended for one year, commencing Dec 2 2019 until Dec 1 2020.
“These extensions augur well for the Group as they stabilise a significant portion of the Group’s revenue for the said period. What’s more, it enables the Group to mobilise our resources to intensify our foray into specialty products as one of our strategies moving forward to create a pool of niche products” he said.
