Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's leading pharma giant, has suffered a major setback in profits during the fourth quarter ended December 2007 despite significant rise in other income. The company's standalone net profit declined by 65.2 per cent to Rs 48.40 crore from Rs 139.07 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales also moved down by 1.2 per cent to Rs 993.32 crore from Rs 1005.85 crore. With sharp fall in bottom line, its net profit margins worked out to 4.87 per cent for the fourth quarter as against 13.83 in the last period.

The company's other income went up sharply by 323 per cent to Rs 124.79 crore from Rs 29.48 crore, which mainly includes export benefits, forex gain or loss and share of revenue from Bayer A.G. on Ciprofloxacin OD. The operating profit before interest, depreciation, taxation and exceptional items declined by 45.5 per cent to Rs 111.30 crore from Rs 204.37 crore.

For the year ended December 2007, Ranbaxy has reported standalone net profit growth of 61.2 per cent to Rs 622.99 crore from Rs 386.45 crore in the previous year. The main contributing factor to the net profit during the year is the other income of the company. However, its net sales improved only by 2.8 per cent to Rs 4,034 crore from Rs 3,925 crore. The other income went up to Rs 341 crore from Rs 79.57 crore in the previous year. Net profit margins improved to 15.44 per cent from 9.84 per cent and its operating margins reached at 24.61 per cent from 16.28 per cent. The earning per share worked out to Rs 16.71 as against Rs 10.37 in the last year.

Meanwhile, the company management has deferred its decision of demerger of New Drug Discovery Research Unit of the company into a separate entity for the time being and the same will taken up for consideration at a specifically convened Board meeting in early February, 2008.