SCI clocks net profit of Rs 438 cr in six months this year

Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) which saw a 59 per cent dip in net profit last year due to the economic meltdown, turnaround and clocked Rs 432 crore net profit in six months this year, a top official said today.

"2008-2009 was bad due to recession and we saw a decline of 59 per cent in our net profit which stood at Rs 387 crore last year. However this year we have done considerably well and achieved a profit of Rs 432 crore, an 80 per cent growth over last year," J N Das Director (Liner & Passenger services) SCI told reporters here today.

He was speaking after announcing SCI's follow-on offer that aims to raise Rs 1,184 crore, making it the sixth big-ticket disinvestment by the government in the current financial year.

"With global trade expected to increase by 44 per cent by 2020, total traffic in Indian ports to grow to 877 mn MT by 2012 and to 962 mn MT by 2014, coal imports to rise from 43.1 mn MT in FY 2007 to 83.3 mn MT by 2012 and container growth in India in the coming years to be over 10 per cent (annually), we see lot of opportunities to improve its capacity," he said.

SCI plans to ramp up its capacity to 10 million DWT by acquiring vessels in the next six years, Das said.

He said SCI would continue to focus on energy transportation (oil, gas and coal), improve operational efficiency by acquiring new vessels, ship building and logistics and added it had already given two offshore vessels to Kochi shipyard.

SCI has a flagship service to Europe, China, the Mediterranean, Gulf and India.

The FPO with a fixed price band at Rs 135-140 per share comprises a fresh issue of 42.3 crore equity shares and selling of the same amount of shares by the Centre. The issue which opens today, will close on Dec 2 for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) and Dec 3 for other bidders.

Following sale of the stake, government's holding in SCI will come down to 63.75 per cent from 80.12 per cent now.

Das described it as a "good offer" and said FPO would lead to higher trading of SCI shares in the stock market.