Slovenia's Krka first-half profit falls 38 pct, currencies hurt (updated)

Krka dd Novo Mesto

28/07/2016 11:43

* Sales up by 1 pct 
    * Share price down by 0.76 pct 
 
 (Updates with quote, details, share price) 
    By Marja Novak 
    LJUBLJANA, July 28 (Reuters) - Slovenian generic drugs 
producer Krka's  KRKG.LJ  first-half group net profit fell 38 
percent to 70.1 million euros ($77.73 million) due to the lower 
prices of pharmaceuticals and currency  devaluation, the company 
said on Thursday. 
    It also confirmed that group sales rose by 1 percent to 
603.8 million euros in the same period.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N19T3PK 
    "For the most part of the first half-year, we hedged the 
(Russian) rouble to account for the high volatility of its rate, 
and thus incurred additional costs," Krka said in a statement. 
    "The result was also affected by the depreciation of other 
currencies, especially the Polish zloty, the Ukrainian hryvnia 
and the British pound," it said. 
    Analysts said the profit fall had been expected due to 
currency volatility. 
    "It is possible that the share would temporarily fall by a 
few percent due to these figures but there is no reason for 
panic as long as Krka's sales continue to grow," said Marko 
Rozman of Dezelna Banka. 
    Shares of Krka, Slovenia's largest listed company with 
market capitalisation of about 1.9 billion euros, was down 0.76 
percent at 59.4 euros by 1025 GMT, almost in line with a dip in 
the blue-chip SBI index  .SBITOP . 
        ($1 = 0.9019 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Marja Novak; editing by Susan Thomas) 
 ((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-1-5058805; Reuters 
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SLOVENIA KRKA/RESULTS