Ajanta Pharma has posted satisfactory performance during the year ended March 2008 and its consolidated net profit increased by 16.2 per cent to Rs 25.43 crore from Rs 21.88 crore in the previous year. The company's net sales improved modestly by 12.9 per cent to Rs 349.34 crore from Rs 309.37 crore. The earning per share worked out to Rs 21.72 as compared to Rs 18.69 in the last year.

The board of directors has recommended equity dividend of 25 per cent on equity capital of Rs 11.80 crore. Ajanta's reserves & surplus touched to Rs 145.31 crore from Rs 123.05 crore.

Yogesh M Agrawal, managing director, said, "Today we have all the ingredients to continue our growth momentum in the coming years - market, brands, R&D, manufacturing facility, distribution network, dedicated team and above all, the fire and commitment to perform. We added few feathers in our cap during the financial year, one being approval of our Paithan manufacturing facility from US FDA and the other being number of first to launch products in various markets."

The company's employees cost went up by 40.1 per cent to Rs 42.67 crore from Rs 30.45 crore. Its interest burden increased sharply by 45.9 per cent to Rs 23.55 crore from and its depreciation figure moved up by 80.4 per cent to Rs 14.20 crore. The profit before interest, depreciation and taxation grew by 27.8 per cent to Rs 67.57 crore from Rs 52.89 crore.