Birla Corp Q4 results: PAT dips over 23%; check details of dividend, NCDs issue, earnings report here

MP Birla Group's flagship company, Birla Corporation has registered a 23.4% drop in net profit to ₹85 crore in the fourth quarter for FY23, compared to a profit of ₹111 crore witnessed a year ago same quarter. Birla concluded a challenging FY2022-23 with record sales and an all-around strong performance in the March quarter, which wiped out cumulative losses till the end of December.

Further, in Q4FY23, the company's EBITDA dropped by 6.6% to ₹323 crore as against ₹346 crore in Q4 of FY22. Cash profit stood at ₹235 crore also lower by 19.2% in the quarter.

Revenue climbed by 7.6% to ₹2,512 crore in Q4FY23 as against ₹2,334 crore in Q4 last year.

If excluding Mukutban performance, the company's revenue stood at ₹2,370 crore up by 1.5% YoY, EBITDA at ₹338 crore down by 2.3%, and cash profit at ₹279 crore lower by 4.1% YoY.

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Mukutban is a unit of the company's material subsidiary, RCCPL Private Limited. It has a nameplate capacity of 3.9 million tons and started commercial production at the beginning of FY2022-23. Birla said, the unit turned EBITDA-positive in March, and its performance has been ahead of internal expectations despite not-so-encouraging market conditions in Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, sales volume in Q4FY23 stood at 4.44 mt up by 4.5% YoY. The company's capacity utilisation stood at 89%, which, however, came lower by 17.2% YoY in the quarter. Blended cement was also at 89%, while the trade channel came in at 77%. Also, sales of premium cement were maintained at 51% for the full year and were raised to 54% for the March quarter (51% in the same period last year).

According to Birla, in the year FY23, the biggest challenge for the entire cement industry was abnormal rise in power and fuel costs, which typically account for around 30% of total production costs for all manufacturers.

For Birla, power and fuel costs went up 32% for the full year, while registering a sequential decline of 3% in the March quarter.

Nevertheless, the company managed to scale back fuel costs by ramping up coal extraction from RCCPL's Sial Ghoghri captive coal mine and optimum mixing of fuels such as imported and domestic coal and pet coke. Production of coal at Sial Ghoghri reached 351,565 tons during the year, up 72% over the previous year.

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Additionally, Birla has been steadily investing in Waste Heat Recovery Systems (WHRS) and solar power generation facilities to step up the use of renewable power, which for the full year accounted for 22% of total power consumed.

By the end of the March 2023 quarter, Birla's consolidated net debt stood at ₹3,659 crore against ₹3,398 crore a year earlier.

Birla said, it is constantly working towards reducing its borrowing cost. renegotiating ₹2,200 crore of term loans.

In a meeting held on Tuesday, Birla's board of directors recommended a dividend of ₹2.5 per share (25%) on 7,70,05,347 ordinary shares for FY23, which shall be paid within 30 days from the date of approval by the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting of the company, subject to deduction of tax at source as applicable.

Also, the board approved the issuance of redeemable non-convertible debentures aggregating up to ₹200 crore on a private placement basis in one or more tranches, within the overall borrowing limits of the company, as approved by the members, from time to time, within one year.

On BSE, Birla's share price closed at ₹991.05 apiece up by 0.94%.