UltraTech Cement reported a flat consolidated net profit of Rs 1,697 crore for the April-June quarter compared to Rs 1,690 crore a year ago. The numbers were below Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 1,787 crore. The country’s largest cement maker’s revenues rose marginally by 2% year-on-year to Rs 18,070 crore as against estimates of Rs 18,261 crore.
However, CFO Atul Daga said in the post-earnings investor call that the firm expects cement volumes to grow by “double digits” in the ongoing financial year, even as the same for the industry is seen at 7-8% for the period. He said demand for the ongoing quarter is expected to be subdued at 3-3.5% year-on-year owing to the monsoon.
In the April-June quarter, a number of factors went against cement makers. These included the second longest general elections in terms of timeline, extreme heat and unavailability of labour. UltraTech’s shares closed 3.28% lower on the BSE at Rs 11,268.
Among other key numbers, the firm’s profit before interest, depreciation and tax was at Rs 3,039 crore, while consolidated Ebitda stood at Rs 3,049 crore in the year-ago quarter. On the operational front, the cement maker saw domestic sales volume register a 6% growth on year-on-year basis. Energy costs were lower by 17% y-o-y, mainly on account of reduced fuel prices. Raw material costs marginally rose by 1%. attributable to the increase in the cost of fly ash and slag, the company said in a release. The company’s grey cement capacity expanded by 8.7 MTPA, taking its total grey cement capacity of the company to 149.5 MTPA in India.