Sterlite Technologies Q3 net profit at Rs 91 cr, revenue at Rs 1,203 cr

Sterlite Technologies on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 91 crore (excluding exception items) during December 2019 quarter.

The company had registered a net profit of Rs 146 crore in October-December quarter a year ago, Sterlite Technologies Limited (STL) said in a regulatory filing.

Its consolidated revenue stood at Rs 1,203 crore during December quarter as against Rs 1,335 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19.

The company's exceptional items stood at Rs 51 crore in the third quarter of 2019-20.

During the quarter, the company made an application under Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 (SVLDRS) for settlement of disputed excise matter of Rs 188 crore demanded by CESTAT in 2005-06, which the company was contesting in Supreme Court, and also some other litigations which were pending as of June 30, 2019, it said.

Based on the provisions of SVLDRS, the management has determined the duty payable in respect of all matters offered for settlement under the scheme and accordingly, made an additional provision Rs 50.71 crore in the current quarter, it added.

The company is awaiting acceptance of the application by the department as of date, it added.

"We delivered a revenue of Rs 1,203 crore and a net profit of Rs 91 crore after adjusting provision of exceptional item and correspondingly tax gain. We are confident of higher profits starting from Q4 this year on the back of new orders and expansion in new geographies," the company said in an e-mailed statement.

The market environment in 2019 witnessed uncertainty and sluggish growth on account of the economic downturn, STL Group CEO Anand Agarwal said.

"Within this business environment globally, we increased our order book over the last quarter and have shown a 21 per cent revenue growth (9-months year to date) as compared to last year," he added.

The company's transformation from an optical fibre company to an end-to-end data networks integrator has significantly increased its overall addressable market, Agarwal said.

"We continue to be extremely bullish and focused on our data network integration capabilities by investing in growth areas such as data centers and wireless solutions," he added.

The filing said the company continues to grow its healthy order book of Rs 8,535 crore with a strong growth outlook.

"STL is geared up to be a leader of the next generation ecosystem by innovating and delivering across all the layers of the data network," it added.