Rising Profits and Sales at Richter Gedeon Plc.

Sales and profit grew well above analysts' expectations in the first quarter of this year for the Hungarian pharmaceutical company Richter Gedeon Plc. The firm achieved a consolidated after tax profit of HUF 29.1 billion, which is 34.6% higher than in the same period of the previous year, and its sales revenue increased by 16.3% to HUF 141.4 billion, the company said on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange.

According to the analyst consensus prepared by Portfolio.hu, sales may have increased by 13% to HUF 137.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, all analysts expected increasing sales compared to the same period in 2019. In the case of the after-tax profit, the median consensus compiled by the financial website projected a 6.1% higher profit of HUF 23.4 billion.

The impact of the pandemic is highlighted in the report: the company’s capital-intensive balance sheet, currently unencumbered by any loan portfolio, complemented by a consistently positive cash flow, provides a solid foundation for both the crisis and the expected subsequent economic slowdown.

"Although the pharmaceutical sector is commonly better shielded from crisis shockwaves, all economic sectors, including our own, were hit by the global COVID pandemic. I am extremely proud of the resilience of our business operations in the face of the disruption caused by the virus. We managed to stand our ground thanks to our organisational culture of trust and cooperation, our vertically integrated business model, our geographic and therapeutic diversification and a strong balance sheet – all of them core values that continue to define our approach to steering the ship of Richter," Gedeon Richter's Chief Executive Officer, Gábor Orbán said.