Higher expenses and lesser sales have squeezed cement maker ACCs consolidated net profit by 36.85% during the April-June quarter to R261.76 crore from R414.52 crore during the same period a year ago.

Shares of the company were trading at R1,179.50 a piece, down 4.18% during the later afternoon trade.

The ACC board has approved an interim dividend of R11 per share, it said in an exchange filing on Thursday.

ACC, which has majority stake by Switzerland-based building material major Holcim, reported a 3.6% dip in revenue during the quarter to R2,851.07 crore.

Expenses, however, went up to R2,502.09 crore compared with R2,412.60 crore a year ago mainly because of the costlier raw material and higher employee benefit expenses.

It consumed raw material worth R411.15 crore during the quarter from R408.48 crore in the same period a year earlier. Employee benefits expenses also went up to R172.54 crore from R144.31 crore.

Holcim said on Wednesday it would raise its stake in its another Indian unit Ambuja Cements in a restructuring of its operations in the country that the Swiss cement maker said would cut costs.

Holcim said the deal would increase coordination between Ambuja and ACC and was expected to bring cost savings of about $150 million per year, which would be shared by the two Indian companies.