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India Cements has reported a 26 per cent increase in its net profit at ₹44 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 when compared with ₹35 crore in the year-ago quarter, helped by growth in cement volumes and better realisations.
The net plant realisation (NPR) improved on account of improvement in selling price by six per cent. The increase in NPR together with the improved volume resulted in higher EBIDTA of ₹210 crore as compared to ₹162 crore. Total revenue stood at ₹1581 crore in Q4 of FY19 as compared to ₹1402 crore in Q4 of FY18, an increase of 13 per cent.
The overall cement sales including clinker grew to 33.30 lakh tonnes for the March 2019 quarter as against 30.93 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. “While cement prices started improving from February, our costs have been contained. Demand in the south was driven by Andhra and Telengana mainly due to infrastructure projects. During the 4th quarter, capacity utilisation of the company improved to 84 per cent compared to 79 per cent in the same quarter last year,” N Srinivasan, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, India Cements, said here.
He said the trend on cement prices would continue as the company had reached a certain level of realisations. EBIDTA per tonne increased to ₹629 in Q4 from ₹470 per tonne in Q3. “We expect it to be better in the first quarter of this fiscal,” he added.
For the year ended March 31, 2019, the company’s net profit fell 32 per cent at ₹69 crore when compared with ₹101 crore in the previous year mainly due to lower NPR during most part of the year and an increase in variable cost offset to a certain extent by a reduction in fixed costs.
Total income for 2018-19 increased to ₹5659 crore against ₹5360 crore in the previous fiscal. Cement sales FY19 grew 11 per cent to 124.40 lakh tonnes as compared to 111.75 lakh tonnes in FY18. Capacity utilisation improved to 79 per cent from 71 per cent in the previous year. On the outlook, he hoped that the new government at the Centre would continue to lay strong thrust on infrastructure development and housing.
The new Government in Andhra Pradesh would also give a push to housing and infrastructure development, he said. The board has approved a dividend of eight per cent on its equity capital.
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