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Hit by higher contractual expenses, state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) reported a decline in consolidated net profit for the April-June period of 2015-16. Net profit fell 6.6 per cent to Rs 3,764 crore against Rs 4,033 crore in the corresponding period last year. These were 15 per cent lower than the Street expectation of Rs 4,111 crore, as indicated by Bloomberg estimates.
The contractual expenses that came in at Rs 2,490 crore, rose 38.4 per cent year-on-year, denting operating performance.
Operating profit was up 2.7 per cent to Rs 4,387 crore. Employee benefit expenses also rose 1.8 per cent to Rs 7,185 crore, but the growth was well lower than the increase in sales. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation at Rs 4,494 crore came lower than Rs 4,677 crore estimated by Bloomberg.
The net sales rose 6.4 per cent to Rs 18,956 crore against Rs 17,800 crore in the year-ago period. But again, these were about two per cent lower than consensus estimates of Rs 19,317 crore. According to the company’s filings in BSE, its June quarter production stood at 121.35 mt— a rise of 12 per cent against 108.32 mt in the same period last year.
However, Coal India failed to meet its production target for the month of July, which grew by 5.5 per cent to 34.83 mt recording its lowest production in the past six months. So, the Street would be keeping an eye on production as well as offtake numbers for the coming months.
CIL shares closed at Rs 371.45 apiece on the BSE, down by 5.5 per cent from the previous close as the benchmark index fell 1.3 per cent. The results were declared post market hours.
