Grasim Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, on Thursday reported a growth of 15% in its consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2010, at Rs 654.48 crore compared with Rs 568.79 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated net sales during the quarter stood at Rs 5,385.62 crore, up 10.39% from Rs 4,878.29 crore in Q4 FY 2009.
?The results have been driven by improvement in both its cement and VSF businesses. While the cement business has performed well, supported by higher output from the new capacities including its captive power plants, the VSF business has recovered from the extreme downturn of the last year,? said Adesh Gupta, CFO of the company.
For the full year ended March 31, 2010, Grasim?s consolidated net profit grew 42% to Rs 3,095.53 crore along with a growth of 9% in its consolidated net sales at Rs 19,933.36 crore.
The viscose staple fibre (VSF) business production grew 35% during the quarter. And due to new capacities and increased demand, the cement volumes during the quarter grew 9% to 10.36 million tonne. However, realisations during the quarter were lower by 4% on the y-o-y basis.
?Muted demand growth and bunching of new capacities led to fall in prices in the southern region, impacting the company in Q4,? said Gupta.
On a standalone basis, Grasim?s net profit during Q4 dipped by 24.79% to Rs 289.35 crore against Rs 384.71 crore in same period last year.
Grasim Industries? shares on Thursday slipped 2.45% to close at Rs 2,513.50 on the BSE.
Starting with the phase-I of further expansion, Gupta said the company is examining various options and has a target to start brownfield expansions of 10 million tonne latest by the Q4FY11. He did not specify the locations, but said that the company would require about Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 6,500 crore for the expansion.
Grasim had earlier said it would require an additional capacity of around 25 mt over the next five years just to retain its current market share of 20%.