Aurobindo Pharma has received major jolt during the third quarter ended December 2004 and its net profit declined sharply by 70.3 per cent to Rs 10.59 crore from Rs 35.62 crore in the corresponding period of last year mainly due to higher interest, depreciation and R&D expenses. Its earning per share nosedived to Rs 2.09 from Rs 7.36 in the last period. Due to the poor financial performance, today, its share price has declined to Rs 288 from its previous close of Rs 307 on BSE.

The net sales also declined by 1.2 per cent to Rs 319.33 crore from Rs 321.14 crore in the similar period of last year.

During the quarter, it interest burden went up by 33.4 per cent to Rs 10.42 crore from Rs 7.81 crore and depreciation increased to Rs 12.58 crore from Rs 9.09 crore. These higher expenses were on account of investments in R & D and production infrastructure for regulated markets. The company has also written off R&D expenditure of Rs 10.37 crore during the quarter.

The company's sales for the nine months period ended December 2004 declined to Rs 873.57 crore from Rs 978 crore and its net profit declined sharply by 65.7 per cent to Rs 31.17 crore from Rs 90.82 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company achieved sales of Rs 1341.07 crore during the year ended March 2004 and its net profit touched to Rs 127.02 crore. Thus, the poor performance in the first nine months of 2004-'05 will put pressure on working of full year and looks that the company will not able to improve its earning per share in the remaining three months of the current year.