Bharat Forge Ltd on Monday posted its third quarter earnings for the financial year 2023-24 with profit at Rs 254.45 crore, up 223.2 per cent in comparison to Rs 78.72 crore during the corresponding quarter of FY23. It posted revenue from operations at Rs 3866.41 crore, up 15.3 per cent on-year. The company’s revenue during the third quarter of FY23 was at Rs 3353.36 crore.
The company board also declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.50 per equity share of the face value of Rs 2 each of the company (at the rate of 125 per cent). “The interim dividend shall be paid on or before Tuesday, March 12, 2024 to the equity shareholders of the company, whose names appear in the Register of Members of the Company or in the records of the Depositories as beneficial owners of the shares as on Friday, February 23, 2024 which is the record date fixed for the purpose,” Bharat Forge said in a regulatory filing.
“During the quarter, the company delivered a strong performance with sales growing by 15.9 per cent to Rs 2263 crore and EBITDA growing by 30.9 per cent to Rs 645 crore. EBITDA margins at 28.5 per cent expanded by 330 bps driven by favourable product mix and focus on cost optimisation. The balance sheet continues to remain very healthy with cash on books of ~Rs 1,000 crore (Net of Long-Term Loans). Exports from Indian manufacturing operations across components, defence and industrial in Q3FY24 stands at US$ 200 million, a growth of 36 per cent over Q3FY23. Over time, We expect this number to grow as the new verticals scale up and we enhance our presence in the industrial space,” said BN Kalyani, Chairman & Managing Director.
For 9M FY2024, standalone sales have grown by 19 per cent to Rs 6640 crore and EBITDA grew by 29 per cent to Rs 1815 crore. A key driver of this growth has been the successful ramp-up of the defence business, in addition to the growth in the core forging business.
BN Kalyani added, “During the quarter, the company has secured new business worth Rs 550 crore across Automotive, Industrial, Defence, Aerospace and Castings (Ferrous & Aluminum). In the overseas operations, we have been able to achieve improvement in operational parameters at the Aluminum business in Europe and the same is expected in the US plant soon. We continue to work on creating a sustained path to profitability for the overseas business driven by a combination of achieving profitability in the aluminum business and product/manufacturing optimization in the steel business, all expected to materialize in the next 12-18 months. Looking ahead in the Q4 and further into FY25, we expect the growth momentum to moderate in both domestic and export markets across industries. Our endeavor will be to outperform the market driven by our diversified business mix.”
Meanwhile, the company board also approved the re-appointment of Dipak Mane as the non-executive independent director of the company for a second term of five consecutive years from June 21, 2024 up to June 20, 2029. Dipak Mane’s current term of appointment will expire on June 20, 2024. Dipak Mane holds a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai; and has done an Advance Management Program from the IMD, Switzerland.