Aurobindo Pharma expects to become debt free in 3 years without Sandoz deal

Aurobindo Pharma expects to become a debt free company in the three next years barring the amount it is spending on acquisition of Sandoz products, a senior official of the city-based company has said.

In September last year, the USD three billion drug maker said its US subsidiary entered into an agreement to acquire commercial operations and three manufacturing facilities in America from Sandoz Inc, USA, a Novartis Division, for USD 900 million.

"During the year, we will reduce between USD 150 million to USD 200 million debt, and we have already achieved that..On the long-term front, based on the experience, which we had in the last two or three quarters, and we are targeting to achieve a zero debt in the next three years. That's what we are all seeing on the existing business... without considering Sandoz," Santhanam Subramanian, Aurobindo Chief Financial officer said in a recent earnings call.

The company's net debt decreased by USD 71 million quarter-on-quarter to USD 522 million at the end of September 2019 against USD 593 million at the end of June 2019.

The majority of the company's debt is denominated in foreign currency.

The cash and bank balance was at USD 305 million.

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