Bajaj Hindusthan net profit dips by 48% in FY11

Bajaj Hindusthan, the country's largest sugar company, today reported a 48 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 21.45 crore during 2010-11 fiscal mainly due to higher interest outgo.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 41.19 crore in the previous fiscal. It follows October-September as fiscal year in line with the sugar marketing year.

Total income, however, rose to Rs 5,081.89 crore during last fiscal from Rs 3,320.48 crore in the previous year, Bajaj said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company paid Rs 550.72 crore as interest in 2010-11 fiscal against Rs 368.12 crore in the previous year.

 

Bajaj has 14 sugar plants in Uttar Pradesh with cane crushing capacity of 1.36 lakh TCD (tonnes crushed per day).

The company has also forayed into power business and is setting up coal based power plants of 90 MW each near its existing facilities.

Besides this, through a consortium, the company has also embarked on developing two mega thermal power projects in UP, each of which will produce 1,980 MW of power.

Bajaj's total debt stood at Rs 5,196 crore as on September 30, 2011.

The company has recently raised Rs 1,480 crore through rights issue and a large part of this would be utilised to reduce debt, Bajaj's Chief Financial Officer Manoj Maheshwari said in a conference call to analysts.

On its power business, he said the company has bought land for its thermal power project at Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh and all the approvals have been taken.

The financial closure of the project has also been achieved in August, he added.

Regarding coal allocation, Maheshwari said the application has been sent to the coal ministry.