LT Foods Q4 net jumps seven-fold at Rs 10 cr

Rice exporter LT Foods today reported a more than seven-fold rise in the net profits to Rs 9.69 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, on higher sales. It had posted a profit of Rs 1.28 crore last year.

"Our net profit has grown due to higher sales in last fiscal and also because of forex loss in the fourth quarter of the previous year," LT Foods Joint Managing Director Ashwani Arora said.

Net sales in the fourth quarter of last fiscal rose by 52% to Rs 449.03 crore as compared to Rs 294.84 crore in the same period of the previous year.

However, the net profit in the 2010-11, fiscal fell by 24% to Rs 25.65 crore as against Rs 33.15 crore in the previous fiscal. Net sales rose by 20% to Rs 1,281.38 crore as compared to Rs 1,067.40 crore in the review period.

When asked about the fall in profit during last fiscal, Arora said the company's operational profit has gone up, but profit after tax (PAT) has declined as the company had earned Rs 10 crore in forex in 2009-10 financial year.

LT Foods has five rice processing plants with a capacity of 2.5 lakh tonnes. The company sold 1.9 lakh tonnes in last fiscal, out of which about 50% were exports. The company's major exports destinations include middle-east, America and Europe.

Shares of the company at 1500 hours were trading at Rs 52.25, up by 2.75% from its previous close at the Bombay Stock Exchange.