Hungary's Egis sees domestic turnover down in 2008

BUDAPEST, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Hungarian drug maker Egis EGIS.BU said its domestic market performed below expectations in 2007 and revenues will be down in 2008, business daily Napi Gazdasag reported on Monday.

Hungary's drug market shrank by 3 to 4 percent in 2007 and smaller, less well-known firms benefited while bigger companies such as Egis, were hurt, Napi Gazdasag quoted Chief Financial Officer Laszlo Marosffy as saying.

He added that mandatory subsidy repayments to the government were smaller than expected but that did not have a positive impact on results.

"What we didn't have to pay back into the budget, we lost due to the shrinking of the market," Marosffy said.

He predicted that the market would stop shrinking in 2008 but prices would continue to fall, which will result in a further decline in domestic revenue.

Egis officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by David Cowell)