UltraTech Cement Ltd.'s fourth-quarter profit rose surpassing estimates, aided by lower costs.
The cement maker's net profit rose 12% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 1,775 crore in the three months ended March, it said in an exchange filing. That compares with the Rs 1,645-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
Revenue rose 17.5% over the preceding quarter to Rs 14,406 crore. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had projected Rs 13,460 crore.
Operating profit rose 18.9% sequentially to Rs 3,690 crore—the highest at least since the first quarter of the financial year 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts had expected Rs 3,152 crore.
Lower costs aided the operating performance. Power and fuel expenses came down to 18.7% of sales from 19.6% in the preceding quarter. Employee benefit expenses fell from 5% to 4.3% of sales.
The reported number, however, includes other expenses like the one-time expense of Rs 130.6 crore against various disputed liabilities
Shares of UltraTech Cement closed 1.19% on Wednesday ahead of the earnings announcement compared with a 0.52% gain in BSE Sensex.
Other Highlights
The company reduced net debt by Rs 10,264 crore for the year ended March. Net debt-Ebitda ratio fell to 0.55x from 1.72x a year earlier.
The board recommended dividend of Rs 37 per share, aggregating Rs 1,068 crore.
Additional capacity is being created in east, central and north India.
Board earlier sanctioned capacity expansion of 19.5 million tonnes through a mix of brownfield and greenfield plans.
Upon completion of the latest round of expansion, the company's capacity will grow to 136.25 million tonnes per year.
Commercial production of expanded capacity is expected to go on stream in a phased manner during FY22 and FY23.
Volumes And Realisation
Domestic volumes rose 16.52% over the preceding quarter to 26.59 MT.
Consolidated volume rose 4.60% to 27.78 MT.
Reported Ebitda per tonne rose 2.1% to Rs 1,328.
Realisation remained flat at Rs 5,186 per tonne.
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