ABB India Q1 net down 11%

Company has been facing intense pressure on its operations, has been struggling to deliver decent returns

ABB India, a publicly held supplier of power and automation technologies, continued with its weak performance and has posted a 11% drop in net profit to Rs 43 crore for its first quarter of 2013 as compared to the corresponding year ago period. Revenues increased 10% to Rs 1953 crore.

The company has been facing intense pressure on its operations and has been struggling to deliver decent returns. The profit before tax too dropped by 11% to Rs 64 crore. ABB India said that it was hit by low price realisation and tight market conditions and these factors eroded improvements achieved through cost optimisation and operational excellence.

Inflow of orders too dropped by 8% to Rs 1,531 crore, taking the total order backlog to Rs. 8,229 crore by the end of the quarter as against Rs. 9,028 crore for the corresponding period in 2012.

ABB said that they are operating in a muted market with customers continuing to exercise caution on large investments while base orders continued to grow. The company continues to assess risk-return profile especially of large projects in the current market environment and revenues from emerging opportunities especially renewables were one of the drivers for growth in the quarter.
 
“While there appears to be a pause before the economy recovers,  we continue to focus on cost and growth, while addressing emerging opportunities such as renewables and energy efficiency by introducing  technology and products to meet the changing market needs,” said Bazmi Husain, Managing Director, ABB Limited, India.

ABB on Wednesday gained a little over 2% to close at Rs 537.40 per share on NSE.