By Rojeeh Samir The Board of Directors of Nile Pharmaceuticals and Chemical Industries released data for the period between July 1st 2011and May 31st 2012 showing that the company's net profit went down from EGP 19 million to EGP 45 million during the same period the previous year. Adel Mahmoud, Director of Investor Relations for the company, said that the fall in profits resulted from the rising costs of raw materials, shipping, and storage, in addition to the inability of the company to raise prices because of the company's social mission. He stressed that the company submitted a number of requests to the Ministry of Healthy to raise the price of medications, but that the Ministry rejected the request. The refusal came despite the Ministry's knowledge of what public pharmaceutical companies are facing in terms of competition against private companies that have the freedom to set their own prices. Mahmoud demanded that the Ministry of Healthy reconcile the social mission of the company with the interests of the shareholders in order to maintain public pharmaceutical companies' viability and attractiveness to investors. The company is currently working on plans to increase investment as well as production, in addition to penetrating new export markets. The company's exports are valued at approximately EGP 30 million per year while their yearly production is close to EGP 350 million. The company is valued at EGP 101.25 million divided among 10.1 million shares each with a EGP 10 nominal value, although share are currently trading at approximately EGP 22.5.
