Hindalco Industries Ltd, the flagship of Aditya Birla Group, on Tuesday reported a fall of 73% in its standalone net profit to Rs 270 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009, against Rs 1,000 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Net sales for the quarter stood at Rs 3,770 crore, down 24.6%, compared to Rs 5,000 crore in Q4 FY08. It did not report consolidated numbers for the quarters.
Said Debu Bhattacharya, MD of Hindalco, and vice-chairman of Novelis, ?The steep reduction in copper LME led to fall in overall sales revenue, though the depreciation of rupee curbed losses. Also higher input costs and unfavourable market mix impaired profitability.?
For the full year ended March 31, 2009, the consolidated net profit of the company was Rs 485.3 crore, a drop of 77.87% against Rs 2,193.3 crore in FY08. Net sales during the year, however, grew 9.35% to Rs 65,625.2 crore as against Rs 60,012.8 crore in FY08.
The profits dipped due to a non-cash un-realised derivative loss of Rs 2,381 crore during the year against Rs 12 crore in FY08 on account of declining metal prices.
Hindalco shares on Tuesday slipped 1.54% to close at Rs 86.45 on the BSE.
Meanwhile, the company’s board of directors on Tuesday approved to raise $ 500 million (Rs 2,400 crore) via qualified institutional placement (QIP) to eligible investors. “The amount is raised to fund the expansion of company’s projects, and we plan to complete it within 5-6 weeks time,” said Sunirmal Talukdar, group executive president and CFO of the company.
The company has chalked a capital outlay of Rs 25,000–30,000 crore for the ongoing expansions till FY 2013.
Meanwhile, Hindalco said that it has a consolidated debt of about Rs 28,000 crore of which Rs 13,000 crore is standalone debts. “Of the standalone debt of Rs 13,000 crore, $1 billion (Rs 4800 crore) will be due after four years, another Rs 5,000 will be paid in installments till 2013. The remaining is for working capital,” said Talukdar.