The company's board of directors, which met on Wednesday, has recommended a dividend of Rs 15 per share of Rs 100 (15 per cent), which will translate into an aggregate payout of Rs 22.54 crore (including tax on dividend). The board also approved the mopup of Rs 100 crore through a preference share issue. At the BSE, the ACC stock closed at Rs 1,403 after touching a high of Rs 1,415 on Wednesday.

The intra-day low was Rs 1,360.25. Around 2.5 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE. The saving grace for the country's largest cement company has been the profits on sale of assets, including the transfer ofcaptive power facilities to Tata Electric Companies. While ACC booked a profit of Rs 54.75 crore from sale of assets, provision relating to other years written back and other non-recurring items, the company netted a profit of Rs 31.94 crore on sale of its captive power units which were sold to TEC for Rs 90 crore.

Besides, ACC has also earned a booty of Rs 32.35 crore on extraordinary items which include dividend income, disposal of US-64 units of UTI and sale of part-holding in International Ferrites to German multinational Siemens.

ACC had a total other income of Rs 65.76 crore last year. During the year, ACC recorded net sales of Rs 2,606.61 crore, up from Rs 2,400.38 crore in the previous fiscal. Sale of cement (including traded cement) increased in volume terms to 9.98 million tonnes from 9.42 million tonnes last year.

Total income during the year stood at Rs 2,742.12 crore as against Rs 2,484.73 crore in the previous year. ACC vice-chairman S Ganguly said: "In view of improved sales realisationof cement during the year coupled with our continuing efforts in controlling costs, operating margin (before interest, depreciation and non-recurring items) has gone up by 36 per cent over the previous year. For three years in succession, the company has been able to hold the variable costs without any increase despite the inflationary impact affecting the input prices."

Operating expenditure during the year increased to Rs 2,391.57 crore, up from Rs 2,256.38 crore, while total expenditure increased from Rs 2,264.64 crore to Rs 2,411.57 crore during the period. Interest liability shot up from Rs 119.14 crore to Rs 162.45 crore, while provision for depreciation increased from Rs 85.51 crore to Rs 103.76 crore during the period. Clinker production at 7.27 million tonnes was lower compared to the last fiscal (7.47 million tonnes). Production of cement for the year at 9.15 million tonnes increased by 3 per cent from 8.88 million tonnes the previous fiscal. Export of cement stood at 0.16 million tonnes ascompared to 0.19 million tonnes in 1997-98.

INSIGHT
One-time income saves the day: Excluding the one-time income, ACC has posted a loss for 1998-99. The performance in the fourth quarter has also been unimpressive. While on a year-on-year basis, operating profit (excluding extraordinary and other income) at Rs 215.04 crore is higher by almost 50 per cent, compared to the third quarter, operating profit is lower by 21 per cent. In the last quarter, ACC posted a PAT of Rs 1.72 crore, which however, includes the profit on sale of power plants, amounting to Rs 31.94 crore.