India Cements posts Q2 net profit of Rs 41 cr

N Srinivasan-led India Cements today reported a net profit of Rs 41.04 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, on cost-cutting.
The Chennai-based firm had clocked a net profit of Rs 7.49 crore during the year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing.
Total income of the firm, led by former the BCCI President, stood at Rs 1,082.37 crore for the July-September quarter this fiscal from Rs 1,135.71 crore in the same quarter of 2014-15.
"As per condition imposed by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), India Cements provided a guarantee for the purpose of guaranteeing performance/compliance by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited (CSKCL) of the obligations of the Franchise under the Franchise Agreement," it said.

Consequent to hiving off the franchise of IPL, the figures of the current quarter are not comparable with those of previous quarters/year, India Cements added.
Declaring the results, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of India Cements Srinivasan said: "The company has posted a sterling performance by cutting costs and maintaining healthy cement price despite reduction in volume."

Variable costs like materials, power, fuel have come down. Also interest cost has come down. We have remained in the profit track for three consecutive quarters, he added.
"We had a tough time for two years and achieved a turnaround by cutting costs and maintaining healthy cement price," Srinivasan said.

Stating that cement production across India grew by 2 per cent in the first six month period of the current fiscal, a company statement said there was low capacity utilisation in South with 60 per cent compared to 75 per cent across India.
On outlook, Srinivasan said, "Construction activities is expected to pick up, driven by more investments envisaged on infrastructure development, and industrial growth in Tamil Nadu."
He further said: "With expected increase in cement in the Southern States and Andhra Pradesh building a new capital city Amaravati, the company will do well in the coming years".
Shares of the company closed at Rs 83.60, up by 6.77 per cent on BSE.