Ambuja Q4 net dips 30% to Rs 211 crore

Experts had estimated around Rs 300 crore of profits

Ambuja Cements, India's fourth largest cement maker, has emerged as a laggard in its latest quarterly performance. Holcim-owned cement major's profitability for the December quarter declined far below the estimates, making it one of the worst performances in recent past.

At a time when its sister-concern ACC managed a better than expected quarterly show, Ambuja's net profits plunged 30% to Rs 212 crore compared with Rs 302 crore in the previous corresponding quarter. Not only the profits, company could not even keep its top-line intact as net sales too declined, though marginally, to Rs 2,313 crore against Rs 2,329 crore in the same quarter last year.

Industry's experts had estimated Ambuja to post around Rs 300 crore of profits which was a modest decline of around 1%. However, it seems poor demand, declining prices and higher input costs during the quarter took a major hit on Ambuja's balance sheet. Meanwhile, the cement major declared a final dividend of Rs 2.2 per share.

On Thursday, shares of Ambuja remained weak throughout the session and lost 2.68% or Rs 5.5 to close at Rs 200.05 on BSE. Interestingly, experts had been expecting better show from Ambuja and weak show from ACC. However, both the calls went opposite which was quite indicative from the share price movement on the stock exchanges.

Since Ambuja follows calendar year as its accounting year, the company's overall net profit for CY2012 rose 5.5% to Rs 1,297 crore against Rs 1,229 crore in CY11. Its yearly net sales were up around 14% at Rs 9,675 crore compared with Rs 8,504 crore.

In its outlook, the company said that after low cement demand as seen in quarter ended December, demand is expected to improve. "Rising cost of energy, logistics and raw materials, would impact the margins," it added in a statement.

Current capacity of Ambuja stands at 28 million tonnes. Along with ACC's capacity Holcim controls close to 60 million tonnes of India's 330 million tonnne cement market.