UPDATE 1-Zentiva sees 9-month net profit at CZK 1.06 bln

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Czech generic drugmaker Zentiva expects to post net income of 1.06 billion crowns ($56.77 million) on net sales of 11.13 billion crowns in the first nine months of this year, the company said on Tuesday.

Zentiva, one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in central Europe, said consolidation of its Turkish business in the third quarter hurt all margins, while continued underperformance in its home market due to price erosion hampered sales.

The company, 25 percent owned by France's Sanofi-Aventis , forecast nine-month earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 1.46 billion crowns.

In the first half of this year, Zentiva's net profit fell 6.8 percent year-on-year to 831.3 million crowns but the company forecast an improvement for the second half.

Zentiva said its Romanian business reported a 10 percent drop in nine-month sales. It incurred one-off costs worth about 105 million crowns in the third quarter due to bad debt provisions, raising one-off provisioning costs to 300 million for January-September.

It added it enjoyed solid growth in most of its markets.

Nine-month results are due for release on Nov. 5, when the company will give an update on the outlook for the full year.

Zentiva's shares fell 0.7 percent to 1,176 crowns on Monday, underperforming a 1.4 percent gain in the blue-chip PX index which climbed to an all-time high of 1,936.1 points.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]