Maker of Ujala fabric whitener, Jyothy Lab reported a 50.6 per cent dip in net profit at Rs 7.2 crore for the third quarter ended March 2008, over the corresponding quarter last year.

The dip was on account of higher effective tax rate of 43 per cent (12 per cent) because the company's Uttarakhand unit did not commence production until January. Net sales declined by 9.6 per cent to Rs 106.1 crore. The decline in sales was also due to lesser sales of its brand Maxo.

Its detergent business which consists of fabric whitener, detergent, dishwash bar and soaps, grew by 2.1 per cent to Rs 57.1 crore and its home care business consisting of incense sticks, dhoop and mosquito coils grew 17 per cent to Rs 48.6 crore.

Alstom Projects March qtr net dips 96%

Power and infrastructure company Alstom Projects India has posted a net profit of Rs 1.5 crore for the quarter ended March 2008, down 95.8 per cent, compared with Rs 36.2 crore for the previous comparable quarter.

However, total income increased by 20.60 per cent to Rs 520.4 crore (Rs 431.5 crore).

As per the audited results, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 73.3 crore for the year ended March 2008, down 33 per cent, compared with Rs 109.4 crore in the previous year. Total income has increased by 26.5 per cent to Rs 1,586.9 crore (Rs 1,254.5 crore) for the year.

It has recommended a dividend of Rs 8 per share.

Alstom Project India's share prices came down by 2 per cent to Rs 673.50 at close today on the Bombay Stock Exchange, from Rs 687.25 at close yesterday.

Firstsource Q4 net dips 40%

Hit by mark-to-market (MTM) losses, business process outsourcing firm Firstsource reported a dip of 39.8 per cent in net profit at Rs 21 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2008. Net profit was Rs 34.9 crore during the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Revenues for the quarter at Rs 375.6 crore (Rs 277.36 crore) were up 7.6 per cent.

Sequentially, net profit grew 1.9 per cent and revenues by 1.6 per cent from Rs 369.5 crore.

The company said the MTM losses were due to FCCB issued by the company for the acquisition of MedAssist. The rupee-dollar exchange rate at the time of issuing the FCCB was Rs 39.53, which the company had to restate at the end of March 31, 2008, to Rs 40.1 to a dollar. The differential was close to Rs 19.25 crore. However, Firstsource maintained that this was non-cash or non-operational expense.

For the full year, it posted a net profit of Rs 131.5 crore (Rs 97.25 crore), up 35.3 per cent. Its revenues grew by 56.3 per cent to Rs 1,298.8 crore (Rs 831 crore).

Ananda Mukerji, MD & CEO, said, "While there are likely to be challenges in the current year in some of our target markets, particularly in BFSI, we believe the proposition for outsourcing and offshoring of business processes continues to be strong and will deliver long term value to our customers."

Its revenues from healthcare, telecom and media verticals continue to grow.

But the contribution from BFSI came down to 28.5 per cent (48.8 per cent) for this quarter. "The BFSI segment has seen a bit of a slowdown. Our collections business was a bit slow. There has been delay in business coming from this segment but the other industries are doing quite well," said a company spokesperson.

In terms of outlook, the company expects a topline growth of 33-38 per cent in US dollar terms in FY09.