Abbott India has suffered minor setback during the third quarter ended August 2008 and its net profit declined by 11.7 per cent to Rs 17.57 crore from Rs 19.90 crore in the corresponding period of last year mainly due to higher staff cost and other input cost. The company's net sales increased by 12.8 per cent to Rs 177.85 crore from Rs 157.72 crore. The earning per share declined slightly to Rs 12.14 from Rs 13.75 during the quarter under review.

For the first nine months of the current year, the company's net sales declined by 11 per cent to Rs 493.76 crore from Rs 444.99 crore in the similar nine months of the last year. The net profit, however, moved down by 2.4 per cent to Rs 49.89 crore from Rs 51.10 crore. Despite lower profit its EPS improved to Rs 34.48 from Rs 34.47.

Abbott bought back 7,97,500 fully paid up equity shares of Rs 10 each, at a price of Rs 630 per share. Consequently, the paid up equity capital stands reduced to Rs 13.68 crore and aggregate public shareholding stands at 42.47 lakh equity shares (31.06 per cent).