BackUltratech Q4 profit climbs 12.7% excluding one-offs
The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) during the quarter at ₹3,322.5 crore was 8% up from a year ago.
PremiumUltratech Cement Ltd on Friday reported a net profit of ₹1,666 crore for the quarter ended 31 March, a 32.3% decline from ₹2,460.51 crore posted in the same period a year earlier.
However, last year’s profit included one-time gains, and excluding the same, the normalized profit stood at ₹1,478 core, Ultratech said. Thus, adjusted for one-offs, its net profit in Q4 grew 12.7% from the year before.
The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) during the quarter at ₹3,322.5 crore was 8% up from a year ago. However, margins at 17.8% were 170 basis points (bps) lower from 19.5% as input costs rose.
Ultratech Cement saw its energy costs rise 17% from a year ago. Pet coke and coal prices increased by 18% and raw materials by 9% due to costlier fly ash, slag and gypsum.
On a sequential basis, however, declining input costs meant a sharp improvement in operating performance. Energy costs declined 4% sequentially, lifting Ebitda by 42.2% sequentially, while net profit grew 57.44%.
Ultratech’s Ebitda per tonne, as per calculations by analysts at Jefferies India Ltd, was at ₹1,060, up by ₹155 sequentially but lower by ₹60 a tonne on a year-on-year basis. The overall cost per tonne declined 5% sequentially but was still 7% higher from a year earlier.
Expanding capacity is supporting volume growth at Ultratech. It commissioned a cement capacity of 5.6 mt per annum (mtpa) during the quarter, taking the total grey cement capacity of the company to 126.95 mtpa in India.
Domestic grey sales volume at 29.9 mt was up 15% year-on-year and 23% sequentially, with capacity utilization at 95%. Including exports, clinker, white cement sales, and overseas grey cement sales, consolidated sales volumes stood at 31.7 million tonnes, up 14% y-o-y and 22% sequentially.
Higher volumes helped raise consolidated net sales to ₹18,436 crore, a growth of 19% over ₹15,557 crore in the year earlier. On a sequential basis, net sales were up 21%. During the year, the company commissioned 12.4 mtpa additional capacity of grey cement.
In April, it commissioned another 2.2 mtpa brownfield cement capacity at Patliputra in Bihar.
Work on its next phase of growth of 22.6 mtpa has already commenced, and the commercial production from these new capacities is expected to go on stream in a phased manner by FY25 and FY26, the company said.
Upon completion of these expansions, its capacity will grow to 160.45 mtpa, reinforcing its position as the third-largest cement company in the world, outside of China and the largest in India by far.
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