Tata Steel Q4 Net Rs 1,036 cr on better sales, European ops

Steel major Tata Steel today reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,036 crore for the fourth quarter ended March on the back of higher sales and margin improvement in domestic operations, coupled with an uptick in its European operations.
The company had reported a loss of Rs 6,529 crore in the same period of previous fiscal due to impairment charges.
Revenues during the January-March quarter stood at Rs 42,428 crore, up 22.5 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago.
Similarly, group's operating profit improved to Rs 4,917 crore against Rs 4,368 crore reported a year ago.
"Despite weak market conditions in India, we have achieved higher sales and generated higher EBITDA margin of 32 per cent for the year. Our European operations also showed a strong recovery in FY14 with EBITDA margin improving by 257 basis points over the year," Group Executive Director (Finance and Corporate) of Tata Steel, Koushik Chatterjee told reporters here.

For the whole financial year, the company reported a profit of Rs 3,595 crore compared with a loss of Rs 7,058 crore previous fiscal. Net sales rose to Rs 1,47,347 crore from Rs 1,33,538 crore.

Talking about domestic operations, Managing Director of Tata Steel - India and South East Asia, T V Narendran said, "We have performed better with significant increase in sales volume. Our brownfield expansion of 2.9 million tonne in Jamshedpur was fully ramped up in the second half of the last fiscal which resulted in higher production of steel."
He added that focus on auto segment has yielded high margins for the company.

He also said that Kalinganagar project in Odisha is likely to be completed during this fiscal.
Narendran, however, said though South East Asian operations remained strong, there was margin pressure due to cheap imports from China in this region.
On the European operations, the company said the operations had improved during the last fiscal.
"European operations have improved on the back of our relentless focus on operational reliability," Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tata Steel Europe, Karl-Ulrich Kohler said.
Talking on total debt, the company said it has a net debt of around Rs 70,000 crore by the end of last financial year.

"The absolute debt number will start falling after the completion of Odisha project," Chatterjee said adding that the option of refinancing of debt remains open, which it will do in right time.
Shares of Tata Steel ended 5.91 per cent higher at Rs 452.15 apiece on the BSE today.