The oil refining and marketing company's turnover went up 28.75 per cent to Rs 12,429 crore this year, from Rs 9,653 crore in the first half of last year. The higher sales and profit was despite the fire at HPCL's Visakhapatnam refinery in September last year.

The refinery went back on stream a couple of months ago, which explains HPCL's considerably lower refinery throughput of 4.41 million tonne in the first six months of this year, compared with 5.48 million tonne in the first six months of last year.

The unaudited results were approved by the HPCL board on Wednesday. A company release said, net worth had increased in the first six months to Rs 4888.60 crore, from Rs 4312.40 crore last year.

Lakme net dips a shade: Lakme Ltd has posted a marginal drop in netprofit to Rs 4.53 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 1998, against Rs 4.68 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net sales was down to Rs 5.94 crore, against Rs 10.76 crore in the same period last year. A company release said the results of the quarter ended September 30, 1998, are not comparable with those of the previous corresponding quarter on account of sale by the company of its industrial undertaking at Deonar and consequent cessation of the cosmetic manufacturing activities, with effect from June 1, 1998.

Income from extra-ordinary items for the 15-month period ended on June 30, 1998 includes profit on sale of the industrial undertaking of the company at Deonar, and shares held by the company in the capital of Lakme Lever Ltd.

The company said that previous year's figures have been regrouped wherever necessary.

Other income is lower at Rs 1.39 crore, against Rs 2.94 crore in the same period last year. Operating profit during the quarter stands at Rs 5.36 crore. The operating profitin the same period last year was Rs 4.22 crore.

Depreciation is lower at Rs 0.10 crore, against Rs 0.23 crore in the same period last year. The provision for taxation at Rs 2.03 crore has dropped from Rs 2.17 crore in the previous year. Interest costs have risen to Rs 0.09 crore from Rs 0.08 crore in the same period last year.

Lakme Ltd, on a provisional basis, posted net sales of Rs 64.33 crore for the 15-month period ended September 30, 1998. Net profit during this period stood at Rs 99.11 crore.

Indo Rama Synthetics posts Rs 86cr net loss in H1: The OP Lohia-controlled Indo Rama Synthetics (I) Ltd has recorded a net loss of Rs 85.51 crore for the first six months of the current fiscal. The company had recorded a net profit of Rs 2.35 crore during the same period in 1997-98. Sales also declined to Rs 655.18 crore, against Rs 756.65 crore. Significantly, Indo Rama has also recorded a Rs 35.81 crore gross loss, as compared with a gross profit of Rs 45.04 crore.

Operating profit has alsodecreased to Rs 44.44 crore, as compared with Rs 100.06 crore. Interest and finance charges soared to Rs 80.25 crore, as compared with Rs 55.02 crore.

A company release said, Indo Rama's performance has been severely affected in the second quarter of the current fiscal due to lower capacity utilisation of its plant operations because of labour unrest.

Production declined to 41,890 tonne in the second quarter of the current fiscal, compared with 63,374 tonne in the corresponding period in 1997-98, the release said.

Sales volumes has, however, increased marginally to 112,666 tonne in the first six months of this financial year as against 112,044 tonne in the same period in 1997-98, the release added.

JK Industries net at Rs 5 crore: JK Industries Ltd has declared an interim dividend of 10 per cent on equity shares for 1998-99 and a net profit of Rs 5.2 crore for the three months ended September 30. This dividend is apart from dividend on preference shares which is on a prescribed rate, accordingto a release. Sales for the quarter stood at Rs 320 crore with operating profit at Rs 36.48 crore.

Best & Crompton suffers Rs 3.78cr loss: Polysindo group's Indian flagship Best & Crompton Engg Ltd has reported a 28 per cent rise in turnover, but made a net loss of Rs 3.78 crore for the first six months of the current fiscal year.

Turnover increased to Rs 27.38 crore during April-September 1998 from Rs 21.31 crore in the corresponding period last year. However, increase in expenditure and interest charges resulted in the company incurring losses, according to financial results taken on record by the company board in Chennai on Thursday.

Expenditure rose to Rs 30.07 crore (Rs 25.75 crore), while interest and similar charges rose to Rs 1.47 crore (Rs 0.45 crore) during this period.

Kinetic Honda sales up: The Pune-based Kinetic Honda Motors Ltd, a joint venture between Kinetic Engineering Ltd and Honda Motors, has recorded an increase in sales and seen a turnaround in profit in thesecond quarter compared to the first quarter of the current financial year. Sales was up from Rs 51.54 crore (first quarter) to Rs 92.49 crore and from a net loss of Rs 5.93 crore in the previous quarter to a profit of Rs 2.3 crore in the second quarter.

Interest cost was also lower at Rs 1.12 crore, against Rs 2.04 crore in the first quarter, a release said in Pune on Thursday.

Kinetic Engg net grows to Rs 4 crore: Two-wheeler major Kinetic Engineering Ltd has posted 20 per cent increase in turnover and 19 per cent growth in profits in the quarter ending September 30, 1998. Gross profit rose 20.15 per cent to Rs 8.47 crore from Rs 7.05 crore. Net profit was up 19 per cent to Rs 4.05 crore, as compared with the corresponding period last year.

Coromandel Fertilisers net drops: The Chennai-based Muruguppa group company, Coromandel Fertilisers Ltd has registered a dip in net profit to Rs 19.85 crore in the first six months of the current financial year, against Rs 22.88 crore in thecorresponding period in the last year. The company board took on record the first-half results in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Sales dropped to Rs 272.67 crore from Rs 296.16 in the corresponding period last year. Gross profit before deprecation and taxes during the first half-year stood at Rs 31.84 crore, against Rs 36.04 crore. It has provided depreciation of Rs 5.04 crore and created provision for taxation Rs 6.95 crore.

The company has proposed an investment of Rs 40 crore to enhance the granulating plant capacity. This is being done to boost NPK fertiliser production by about 50 per cent. The project is expected to be completed in about two year's period, the company said in a statement.

ITC Agro-Tech Q2 sales up to Rs 395 crore: ITC Agro-Tech Ltd, in which Conagra of the US holds 51.5 per cent stake, has reported a 30 per cent rise in sales in the first half of the current fiscal to September 30, 1998 to Rs 394.5 crore, compared with Rs 303.3 crore in the corresponding period last year. Netprofit also improved from Rs 0.40 crore to Rs 1.5 crore.

Operating profit works out to Rs 6.1 crore, against a loss of Rs 1 crore in the corresponding quarter of 1997-98. The management said that the Sundrop retail franchise has grown and the company continued to invest in the brand. It has added that trading margins have improved but "cannot be assumed to continue owing to the seasonality of business".

Since March 31, 1998, the company has changed the method of valuing inventories to the first in first out (Fifo) method and as a result the results for the half-year ended September 30, 1997 have been adjusted accordingly.