Biocon Q2 net beats estimates, shares rise

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director of Biocon Ltd., speaks during a news conference in Bangalore March 8, 2007.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Biocon(BION.NS), India's top listed biotech firm, beat expectations with a 4.7 percent rise in quarterly net profit, sending its shares up over 3 percent on Wednesday.

The Bangalore-based company said consolidated net profit rose to 900 million rupees in the fiscal second quarter ended September from 860 million rupees a year earlier. Revenue rose 19.3 percent to 6.42 billion rupees.

Analysts, on an average, had estimated net profit at 863.7 million rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Biocon also said GE Capital Corp would pick up a 7.7 percent stake in the Indian drugmaker's research services unit Syngene for 1.25 billion rupees.

"This (investment) takes us closer to our commitment of taking Syngene through an IPO (initial public offer) at the most opportune time," Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in a statement.

The drugmaker announced positive results from the global phase-III trials of its recombinant human insulin for type-1 diabetes mellitus patients.

Valued at $958.58 million, shares in Biocon were up 1.4 pct as of 11:39 a.m.

(Reporting by Kaustubh Kulkarni in MUMBAI; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)