ACC consolidated net profit down 19% at Rs 1,059-cr in 2012

Higher fuel and transportation costs also impacted the company's bottomline

ACC, India's third largest cement maker, has beaten street's estimates for the quarter ended 31 December, 2012.

Holcim-owned Indian cement maker posted decline of 46% in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended 31 December at Rs 251.24 crore compared with Rs 463 crore during the previous corresponding quarter. The company's consolidated net sales grew marginally to Rs 2,691.5 crore during the quarter against Rs 2,642.4 crore.

However, on both the parameters ACC managed to do better than analysts' expectations. Some of the brokerage houses had even estimated net profitability to fall below Rs 200 crore during the quarter.

Shares of ACC traded firm throughout the day amid a weak market. Meanwhile, the company also declared its final dividend of Rs 19 per share. The counter closed 1.15% up on BSE at Rs 1,345.40, up Rs 15.3 against the previous close.

ACC, which follows calendar year as its accounting period, posted an overall decline of 18.5% in its consolidated profits for CY12 at Rs 1,059 crore. In the previous year company's profits stood at Rs 1,300.8 crore. The fall in profits was mainly on the back of change in company's method of calculating depreciation on its fixed assets that too with retrospective effect. Else, the consolidated profits would have stood at par with previous year's at around Rs 1,305 crore.

During the year, ACC's cement despatches remained subdued owing to the tough situation the industry faced of lack of demand. The company could sold 24.11 million tonnes of cement, slightly higher than what it sold in CY2011 at 23.73 million tonnes.

In its outlook, ACC said that it expect demand for cement to improve in the coming year. "On the costs front, we anticipate that the prices of our major inputs such as coal, slag, gypsum and freight costs may be under pressure," the company said in a statement.

Currently capacity of ACC stands at little above 30 million tonnes per annum which the company plans to take up to 35 million tonnes by 2015 in a phased manner.