Novartis India FY07 net drops 18% to Rs 88cr

Novartis India has posted an 18% drop in net profit at Rs 88.55 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007, when compared with Rs 107.89 crore for the year ended March 31, 2006.

According to an official release issued by the company to the BSE today, total income for FY07 is Rs 592.32 crore whereas it was Rs 591.93 crore for FY06.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2007, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 23.87 crore whereas it was Rs 19.99 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2006.Total income for Q4FY07 is Rs 144.64 crore whereas it was Rs 121.52 crore for Q4FY06, the release said.

The company had changed the method of providing depreciation on fixed assets from written down value (WDV) method to straight line method (SLM) with effect from April 01, 2005, the release added.

Further, on the basis of an internal evaluation, the company had revised the estimated useful life of certain fixed assets with effect from April 01, 2005. Such revision in useful lives and change in the method resulted in a net write back of depreciation in the previous year and hence, the depreciation charge for the previous year is not comparable with that for the current year.