Voltas soars 14% post Dec qtr results

Voltas has soared 14% to Rs 108 after reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 115 crore for the quarter ended December, due to exceptional items including a charge for an onerous contract of Rs 277 crore. The company had a net profit of Rs 77 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

“The net profit impacted primarily due to recognition of expected cost over-runs on the onerous contract pertains to the Sidra Medical & Research Centre hospital project in Qatar. This project is an approx. $2.5 billion (Rs 12,250 crore) large and the company’s share of work is valued at over Rs 1,000 crore,” Voltas, a Tata Group company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, the company’s net sales grew 11% at Rs 1,160 crore, while operating profit before exceptional items jumped by 6% at Rs 89 crore on year-on-year basis,” the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

The company has Rs 5,094 crore order books in hand for electro-mechanical projects and services segment, as compared to Rs 4,637 crore in a year ago quarter, it added.

As many as 7.74 million shares have already changed hands on the counter on morning deals, against an average 3.2 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on the NSE and BSE.