Century Textiles net rises 12% to Rs 34 cr

BS 200 SCORECARD

Century Textiles & Industries posted 11.87 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 33.93 crore in the third quarter ended December 2006, compared with Rs 30.33 crore in the previous corresponding quarter.

The company's net sales grew 25.35 per cent to Rs 800.95 crore during the quarter from Rs 638.96 crore a year ago.

In the last quarter, the B K Birla group company's operating profit surged 67.47 percent to Rs 171.39 crore from Rs 102.34 crore in the same quarter last year. Its expenditure during the quarter also grew 7.5 per cent to Rs 641.94 crore from Rs 597.14 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2005-06.

The company's EPS (earnings per share) for the period stood at Rs 3.65, marginally up from Rs 3.28 last year.

Consequent upon the acceptance of the VRS (voluntary retirement scheme), certain gratuity and other exits, the company made payments of Rs 61.26 crore. As the liability crystallised in November-December, the company charged half the amount (Rs 30.63 crore) to the accounts for the current quarter, with the balance amount to be charged in the following quarter.

Under the accounting treatment, payments under the VRS will be charged to expenditure over the four accounting years ending March 31, 2010, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

As a result of the virtual cessation of manufacturing operations at the Worli textile mill, the December quarter results are not comparable with the previous corresponding period.

The company has presence in yarn, denim, viscose filament rayon yarn, tyrecords, caustic soda, cement and pulp & paper. Century is setting up a greenfield composite mill in Bharuch. The mill, to have a capacity of 30 million metres, will be operational by the first quarter of the next financial year.

The company is in the process of adding 1.5 million tonne of cement capacity through de-bottlenecking process at its plants.