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Fertilizers major, Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC) has witnessed sharp fall in the net profits for the fourth quarter of the fiscal 2012-13. The company’s net profits for the quarter fell by close to 75 per cent to Rs 58 crore from Rs 230 crore in the same period previous year.
The company registered turnover of Rs 1696 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 1530 crore reported in the corresponding period last year.
According to company officials, overall sluggishness in the fertilizer industry has adversely affected company’s performance.
“Through certain constraints like input non-availability, poor rainfall and consequently sluggish off-take in fertilizers, weak growth of user industries affecting off take of company’s industrial products, further deprecation of the rupee have had a dampening effect on the overall performance,” said Atanu Chakraborty, managing director of the company. For the fiscal, 2012-13, GSFC reported turnover of Rs 6253 crore as compared to Rs 5302 crore in the previous fiscal, showing a growth of 18 per cent. The net profit for the year stood at Rs 518 crore as against Rs 758 crore for the previous financial year. The net profit of the company was recorded after absorbing the long term wage settlement expenditure of Rs 52 crore, he maintained.
Every four years GSFC takes into account wage revision of its workers at different units. According to company officials, for the Sikka unit, the wage settlement expenditure was implemented in third quarter, while the same for fibre and poly units has been taken into account in the fourth quarter.
“This is one-time expenditure in four years. All four of the units have been covered now, hence from the next quarter onwards there will be no wage settlement expenditure,” a company official stated.
“The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a dividend of 100 per cent on its equity shares. This amounts to a payout ratio of 18 per cent as against payout ratio of 8 per cent last year,” the company informed in a statement after the results announcement on Thursday.
“These results were achieved despite shortfall in the availability of Phosphoric Acid for the manufacturing of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) at Sikka and the severe slow down in the economy especially in the commodity market,” Chakraborty noted.
GSFC shares closed at Rs 56.9 on Thursday, down by 0.7 per cent from its previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
