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India Cements posts lower profit in Q1

CHENNAI: India Cements has reported a profit after tax of Rs. 142.40 crore on a turnover of Rs. 986.84 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. The net profit was Rs. 180.40 crore and the turnover Rs. 832.57 crore in the same quarter last year.

The net profit was down primarily because of exceptional expenditure of Rs. 21.75 crore arising out of forex translation difference. In the same quarter last year, there was a gain of Rs. 8.76 crore on this account. The resultant net profit before tax has worked out to Rs. 217.49 crore, up from Rs. 215.14 crore in the same quarter in the previous year. The higher tax provision, including deferred tax, of Rs. 75.35 crore (Rs. 31.74 crore) has also contributed to the lower net profit during the quarter under review.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, N. Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, said that the company had done well vis-À-vis all others in the industry in terms of operating margin. The operating margin for the company worked out to 36.5 per cent during the quarter under review. The operating profit, he said, had gone up to Rs. 311.27 crore from Rs. 265.26 crore.

Mr. Srinivasan said that though input costs had been going up substantially, the company did well to post higher operating margins by raising the price and selling more blended cement. The gross realisation was Rs. 4,016 a tonne (Rs. 3,598) in the first quarter, he said. He also informed presspersons that the fast coming up grinding unit in Chennai would go on stream in the first week of next month. The capacity upgrade plans at Vishnupuram, Malkapur and Parli were all going on schedule. He expected them to go on stream by the third quarter of this year. By the year-end, all these would see the capacity of the company go up to 13.5-14 million tonnes from around nine million tonnes now.

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