Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals tanks 12% on weak Q3 nos

The stock tanked 12% to Rs 271, also its 52-week low on the BSE, after the company reported 81% drop in Ebitda at Rs 80 crore in Q3FY19.

Shares of Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals (GNFC) tanked 12 per cent to Rs 271 on BSE on Tuesday as the company posted 27 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in net profit at Rs 166 crore in December 2018 quarter (Q3FY19). The fertilizer company had reported a profit of Rs 228 crore in a year-ago quarter. The stock hit its 52-week low, and has slipped 25 per cent in the past one month, as compared to a 1 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Operational revenue during the quarter under review dropped 23 per cent YoY at Rs 1,219 crore against Rs 1,591 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and ammortisation) decline by 81 per cent to Rs 80 crore in Q3FY19 from Rs 428 crore in Q3FY18.

The company’s fertiliser segment posted a loss of Rs 44 crore before tax and finance cost against profit of Rs 2 crore in the previous year quarter.

The performance was impacted due to lower subsidy income and sales. The company said it has decided not to recognise additional fixed cost subsidy income for the period April 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018, amounting to Rs 23.23 crore during the quarter, as the earlier claim for the said subsidy was neither acknowledged nor paid by the Department of Fertilizer till date.

The manufacturing facilities of the company had undergone a planned annual shutdown for a period of 27 days during the reported quarter. Hence, the figure for the current quarter is not comparable with the earlier periods to that extent, it added.

At 10:20 am; GNFC was trading 11 per cent lower at Rs 273 on the BSE, as compared to 0.08 per cent fall in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly three-fold, with a combined 1.29 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE so far.