Abbott India suffered heavy setback during the third quarter ended August 2005 on account of significant drop in other income and levy of excise duty on the basis of maximum retail price. Though its sales increased to Rs 123.65 crore during the latest quarter from Rs 104.58 crore, its other income declined to Rs 2.54 crore from Rs 31.38 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The net profit declined to Rs 16.09 crore from Rs 43.29 crore in the last period. The earning per share nosedived to Rs 10.53 from Rs 28.32.

Its other income includes Rs 1.84 core as profit on sales of units of mutual funds (MF) and dividend on units of MF for the quarter ended August 2005 as against Rs 30.60 crore in the corresponding period of last period. During the period under review, the company accounted insurance claim of Rs 4.49 crore on account of loss of stocks due to recent floods/fire.

The company’ net sales for the nine months period increased by 9.2 per cent to Rs 327.19 crore from Rs 299.74 crore in the previous period. The other income declined to Rs 8.88 crore from Rs 49.48 crore which put pressure on bottom line. The net profit declined sharply by 48.9 per cent to Rs 43.87 crore from Rs 85.82 crore basically due to lower profit on sales of units during the first nine months of current year.