IOC Q4 net profit drops 31%; board recommends 1:2 bonus issue of shares

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday reported a 31.4 per cent drop in the fourth quarter net profit on a margin squeeze in petrochemicals and losses on auto fuel sales.

Standalone net profit of Rs 6,021.88 crore, or Rs 6.56 a share, in January-March, compared with Rs 8,781.30 crore, or Rs 9.56 per share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

Sequentially, the profit was higher than Rs 5,860.80 crore in the previous quarter.

With oil prices surging, revenue from operations rose to Rs 2.06 lakh crore in the final quarter of this fiscal year ending March 31 from Rs 1.63 lakh crore a year back.

IOC and other public sector oil companies held petrol and diesel prices for a record duration despite a surge in the cost of raw materials (crude oil). They started raising prices only on March 22.

Pre-tax earnings from the sale of petroleum products fell 8 per cent to Rs 8,251.29 crore while the same from the petrochemicals business was down 72 per cent to Rs 570.18 crore.

The Board of the company recommended the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:2 -- one new bonus equity share of Rs 10 each for every two existing equity shares.

It also declared a final dividend of Rs 3.60 per equity share (pre-bonus), which translates into a final dividend of Rs 2.40 per equity post-bonus for the financial year 2021-22.

The final dividend is in addition to the interim dividend of Rs 9.00 per share (pre-bonus) paid earlier.

For the full fiscal (April 2021 to March 2022), the company posted a record Rs 30,443.93 crore net profit, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous financial year.

The surge came on the back of a rise in refining margins. The firm earned USD 11.22 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the fiscal as compared to a gross refining margin of USD 5.64 in the previous year.

The core GRM or the current price GRM for the year 2021-22 after offsetting inventory gains came to USD 7.61 per barrel, it said.