Aventis Pharma, an Indian arm of sanofi-aventis, France, has suffered heavy setback during the fourth quarter and year ended December 2009 on account of lower sales and other income. Its net profit during the fourth quarter declined by 42.6 per cent to Rs 26 crore from Rs 45.3 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The company's net sales also moved down by 22.2 per cent to Rs 237.1 core from Rs 269.9 crore. Its other income declined to Rs 5.7 crore from Rs 12.3 crore in the last period. The earnings per share nosedived to Rs 11.31 from Rs 19.70. With major setback in top line as well as bottom line, Aventis scrip declined almost by Rs 35 in the morning session to Rs 1620.85 from its previous day close of Rs 1655.60 on the BSE.

The company discontinued the distribution of the anti-rabies vaccine, Rabipur from February 19, 2009, pursuant to the Award of the Arbitrator in the matter relating to the disputes between the company, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc and Chiron Behring Vaccines Pvt Ltd (CBVPL)regarding the non-renewal of the distribution agreement for Rabipur. The company continues to hold 49 per cent of the share capital of CBVPL.

For the full year ended December 2009, Aventis' net profit declined to Rs 157.4 crore from Rs 166.2 crore. Its net sales dropped to Rs 974.4 crore from Rs 983.3 crore in the previous year. As against the equity capital of Rs 23 crore its reserves and surplus touched to Rs 891.6 crore during 2009 from Rs 788.1 crore in the previous year. Its annual EPS worked out to Rs 68.35 as against Rs 72.16 in preceding year.

The company stepped up total dividend of 200 per cent (Rs 20 per share of Rs 10 each) for the year 2009 as compared to 160 per cent in the last year. The dividend payout is 29.3 per cent of the net profit for the year ended December 31, 2009.