UltraTech Cement Q4 net profit rises 10% to Rs 723 cr

UltraTech Cement today reported 9.9 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 722.56 crore for the March quarter on account of higher net sales.
Part of the Aditya Birla Group, the firm had clocked a net profit after taxes and minority interest of Rs 657.20 crore in the year-ago period.
The company said in a regulatory filing that net sales of increased to Rs 6,850.46 crore as against Rs 6,516.52 crore in the year-ago period.
The total expenses of the company in the January-March quarter also increased to Rs 5,857.01 crore compared with Rs 5,518.97 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15 fiscal.

The company further said domestic cement sales registered a growth of 15 per cent in the period under review.
Grey cement sales were 46.93 million tonne for the full financial year as against 43.38 MT in 2014-15, and 13.20 MT for the fourth quarter of 2015-16 as against 11.51 MT in the year-ago period, it said.

Operating costs were reduced with operational efficiencies, a judicious fuel mix and fall in fuel prices.
On the outlook, the company said the cement demand is expected to grow 7-8 per cent next year on the back of the government's focus on infrastructure development, housing, smart cities, among others, all of which augur well for the company.

UltraTech Cement is confident of meeting the demand upsurge and participating pro-actively in the next phase of growth in India.
The company further said its ongoing capex programme is on track. With the commissioning of 25 MW capacity, waste heat recovery systems across its operating units, power generation from waste heat recovery stands augmented to 59 MW.
Further, commissioning of the cement grinding plants at Jhajjar in Haryana, Dankuni in West Bengal and Patliputra in Bihar, the company's cement capacity in the country increased to 66.3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).
The company also commissioned a 2 MTPA cement packaging terminal on the outskirts of Pune, Maharashtra.

In a separate BSE filing, UltraTech Cement said its board has recommended a dividend of Rs 9.5 per equity share of Rs 10 each for the year ended March 31, 2016, subject to the approval of the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting of the company.
It also approved issuance of redeemable non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis for the operations of the company.