Ajanta Pharma has achieved satisfactory performance during the third quarter and nine months period ended December 2008 despite economic slowdown. Its net profit for the quarter improved by 16.8 per cent to Rs 4.60 crore from Rs 3.94 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The profit before interest, depreciation and taxation moved up by 30.4 per cent to Rs 14.55 crore from Rs 11.16 crore. The earning per share for the quarter worked out to Rs 3.93 as compared to Rs 3.37.

For the nine months ended December 2008, Ajanta's net profit jumped by 33.5 per cent to Rs 12.07 crore from Rs 9.04 crore in the similar period of last year. The net sales also increased by 16.1 per cent to Rs 230.07 crore from Rs 198.21 crore.

Yogesh Agrawal, managing director, said, "Ajanta Pharma has made its business more robust with strong brand equity built in domestic and overseas markets. It continues to grow and post healthy performance, evening adverse situations, only because of our focus on specialty segments, with unique product portfolio."