Alembic Ltd, a Gujarat based mid-cap pharma company, pushed its operating profit before interest, depreciation, taxation and exceptional items by 7.3 per cent. The company's gross sales declined by 6.7 per cent to Rs 572.42 crore during the year ended March 2005 from Rs 613.82 crore basically due to significant in sales in the fourth quarter on account of VAT and MRP based excise problem. The net sales declined by 5.8 per cent to Rs 524.46 crore from Rs 556.46 crore in the previous year.

Though the raw material cost declined during the 2004-'05 to Rs 160.59 crore from Rs 182.31 crore, its cost of employees moved up sharply by 43.2 per cent to Rs 57.78 crore from Rs 40.35 crore in the previous year. Interest burden declined to Rs 12.16 crore from Rs 16.10 crore, but provision for depreciation went up to Rs 25.57 crore from Rs 20.23 crore.

During the last period, the company provided Rs 5.81 crore for VRS as compared to Rs 2.59 crore in the 2004-'05. Further, there was provision of Rs 1.33 crore in the previous year for deferred revenue expenses, which pulled down the net profit of last year. The company has shown Rs 2.24 crore as deferred tax assets during 2004-05 as against deferred tax liabilities of Rs 8.27 crore in the previous year. Due to these adjustments, the previous year net profit was lower at Rs 31.26 crore. The company's net profit for the yea ended March 2005 worked out to Rs 50.65 crore, which is up by 62 per cent as compared to earlier year.