November 6 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian blue-chip drug maker Sopharma expects to double its earnings this year and increase revenue by 8.0%, it said.
The company ended last year with a net profit of 19.3 million levs ($14.5 million/9.9 million euro) on sales of 187.5 million levs.
Sopharma's sales rose 8.0% year-on-year in the 10 months through October, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Domestic sales rose 10% on the year in the first 10 months of 2009 and it exports were 8.0% higher. In October alone, Sopharma's total sales increased 18% year-on-year. October sales at home were 5.0% higher and sales abroad were 25% up from October 2008. Sopharma's sales in Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Vietnam and Tunisia exceeded the company exports for all of 2008.
Sopharma (www.sopharma.bg) exports to 28 countries. Russia and other former Soviet republics are its main markets abroad.
Shares of Sopharma, part of the SOFIX index on the bourse in Sofia, were traded 0.25% higher at 4.0 levs by 0940 GMT on Friday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)