UltraTech Q3 net dips marginally by 1.7%

Amid weak cement prices business outlook remains challenging, says company

UltraTech Cement, India’s largest cement maker on Friday reported a marginal net profit decline for the quarter ended December 31, despite a 10 per cent growth in cement sales volume.

Its standalone net profit stood at Rs 364 crore, 1.7 per cent lower than the Rs 370 crore during the same quarter of the previous year. The company sold 10.98 million tonnes of cement during the October-December period, compared with 9.98 mt in the year-ago period.

The shares of UltraTech traded firm on BSE on Friday to end at Rs 3,143.15 apiece, up 0.68 per cent over their previous close. The results were announced after market hours.

The Aditya Birla group firm’s net sales rose 15 per cent to Rs 5,490 crore during the period from Rs 4,783 crore a year ago. The power and fuel costs were up nearly 20 per cent. However, its profit before interest, depreciation and tax (PBIDT) also grew nearly 15 per cent to Rs 990 crore, against Rs 864 crore in the year-ago period.

“On a sequential basis, prices saw a downward trend. The business outlook continues to remain challenging. Demand growth in the long term is likely to be around eight per cent,” UltraTech said in a statement on Friday.

On a consolidated basis, UltraTech’s net profit saw a marginal year-on-year rise of 1.2 per cent — to Rs 400 crore from Rs 395 crore. Its consolidated net sales grew 13.6 per cent annually to Rs 5,834.6 crore from Rs 5,136.7 crore.

The results for the December quarter are not strictly comparable with the previous year, as the company had acquired the JP group’s Gujarat-based cement capacity between the two periods. The share of these units in the company’s growth in the quarter stood at six per cent. However, profits were slightly lower than Bloomberg’s consensus estimates of Rs 447 crore on projected net sales of Rs 5,652 crore. The slip was largely on account of lower other income and higher finance costs. The increase in consolidated finance costs, by 64 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 164 crore, was because of the acquisition of the Gujarat units.

During the quarter, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pared their stake in the company by 37 basis points (bps) to 19.52 per cent, while domestic investors raised theirs by 20 bps to 5.88 per cent.

The quarter also saw UltraTech going for another acquisition — of Jaiprakash Associates’ 4.9-mt Madhya Pradesh units. With this deal, UltraTech’s overall manufacturing capacity has catapulted to 65 mt per year.

For the nine months ended December, the company’s revenue rose by 16 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 16,521 crore, and net profit by seven per cent to Rs 1,400 crore.