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Earlier on January 3, the company’s share price hit Tk 209.5, which took its market capitalisation past the Tk 8,500-mark
Beximco Pharmaceuticals is now a billion-dollar company, in yet another feather in the cap for the trailblazing homegrown drug maker that is having its moment in the sun amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier on January 3, the company’s share price hit Tk 209.5, which took its market capitalisation past the Tk 8,500-mark. The taka-US dollar exchange rate is Tk 85.
Market capitalisation refers to the total dollar market value of a company’s outstanding shares of stock.
Commonly referred to as “market cap,” it is calculated by multiplying the total number of a company’s outstanding shares by the current market price of one share.
Shares of Beximco Pharma have been on the rise since June after the Dhaka bourse resumed from the 66-day recess in line with the government’s countrywide general shutdown to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Since then, Beximco Pharma’s stock price soared more than two-and-a-half times. On Sunday, they closed at Tk 186.5, in contrast to Tk 70.3 on June 1, when trading resumed at the bourse.
In May, when the world was paralysed by fear of coronavirus, the homegrown drug maker grabbed headlines globally for being the first company to market remdesivir, the antiviral drug that showed promise in treating COVID-19 patients.
Three months later, it announced a tie-up with India’s Serum Institute to be the “exclusive distributor” of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh. Beximco Pharma will supply 30 million doses of the Covishield vaccine to Bangladesh.
The two announcements meant Beximco Pharma stock has been much coveted amongst investors, big or small, said market insiders.
All the good press did translate into financial performance: the company posted profit growth of 24.7 per cent for the July-September quarter, which is highest amongst the listed drug makers.
Beximco Pharma’s profit in the first quarter of its 2020-21 financial year stood at Tk 108 crore. This comes after the local pharma giant reported a 16.6 per cent higher profit of Tk 354.4 crore for the financial year that ended on June 30.
Md Asad Ullah, executive director and company secretary of Beximco Pharma, credited the single-minded focus on quality control behind its current purple patch.
Besides, Beximco supplied the other medication for Covid-19 at both home and abroad.
Beximco Pharma joins Grameenphone, Robi, Square Pharma, Walton Hi-Tech, British American Tobacco, United Power and Renata in the billion-dollar club.
Grameenphone remains the company with the largest market capitalisation at the bourses with a value of Tk 50,798 crore as on Sunday.
(DT)
