Bharat Forge net down 15% at Rs 166 cr

Forging major Bharat Forge (BFL) has recorded a drop of 15% in its net profit at Rs 166.16 crore during the quarter ended December 31, 2015, as against Rs 196 crore posted over the same period last year. The company has also witnessed a decline of 9.8% in its revenue at Rs 1,052 crore as compared to Rs 1,197 crore last year.

BFL's topline has been adversely impacted by continued weakness in the industrial sector across both, domestic and international markets especially commodity allied sectors like truck market in North America. It expects to stabilise the market at around 270,000 in the year 2016.

"Our focus on developing new processes, expanding the product portfolio by sweating our existing assets and leveraging our innovation capabilities is opening up new growth avenues. The company is starting to garner order wins from existing as well as new customers both in India & globally. This strategy will be the cornerstone of our next phase of growth in the coming 12-18 months," said B N Kalyani, CMD Bharat Forge.

The company is now eying import dependent sectors such as oil & gas, mining, power and transportation amongst others is progressing well with slew of initial sample orders for new products and systems.

"We continue to witness success in all our new initiatives, including growing business in the passenger vehicle segment, expanding product portfolio across automotive and industrial segments and improving traction in the "Make in India" vertical which creates a strong platform for future growth," Kalyani added.

BFL's exports were down at Rs 628.95 crore as against Rs 733.47 crore in the year-ago period.