Both Beximco Limited and Beximco Pharmaceuticals logged lower profits in the July-December period of fiscal 2022-23 as raw materials became costlier following the taka's depreciation against the US dollar.

Beximco Limited saw its profits fall 13 per cent year-on-year to Tk 658 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal year even though sales rose 9 per cent to Tk 4,008 crore at the same time.

As a result, the company's earnings per share dropped to Tk 7.35 from Tk 8.48 during the same period of the previous year, according to its latest financial report.

Similarly, profits of Beximco Pharmaceuticals fell 15 per cent year-on-year to Tk 265 crore, lowering its earnings per share to Tk 6.02 from Tk 7.12 previously.

The earnings per share declined due to the higher cost of production and a subsequent decrease in the gross margin, as per the company's financial report.

In the July-December period of fiscal 2021-22, Beximco Pharmaceuticals had earned about Tk 61.9 crore as a fee for distributing Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines under a tripartite agreement with the Serum Institute of India and the government of Bangladesh.

So, with the end of this contract, there was no income from this source in the reporting period, leading to comparatively lower profits, it said.

On the other hand, profits of Shinepukur Ceramics, another concern of Beximco Group, almost doubled to Tk 3.64 crore in the July-December period of the ongoing fiscal year.

During the first half of fiscal 2022-23, the company's export revenue grew 5.43 per cent to Tk 45.7 crore while it was Tk 43 crore during the corresponding period the year before.

At the same time, its domestic sales increased by 55.89 per cent to Tk 48 core from Tk 30.8 crore previously.

The company's overall sales revenue (including incentives on export) increased to Tk 98 crore while it was Tk 76.3 crore during the same period in fiscal 2021-22.

Although higher raw material, wage, spare part, maintenance and energy costs pushed up the cost of goods sold, higher sales revenue resulted in better profits, according to Shinepukur's financial report.

Stocks of Beximco Limited yesterday remained the same at Tk 115.6 while that of Beximco Pharmaceuticals dropped 0.34 per cent to Tk 146.

Likewise, stocks of Shinepukur Ceramics fell 0.86 per cent to Tk 46.