ACC net stays put at Rs 225 cr

MUMBAI: Associated Cement Companies (ACC) posted a marginal rise in net profit at Rs 225.3 crore in the September ’06 quarter as compared with Rs 224.74 in the same quarter of the previous year.

The apparent small growth in profit was because of an exceptional item for Rs 132.2 crore in the previous year. Excluding the exceptional item ACC’s profit has grown 143.5% quarter-on- quarter.

Net sales increased 30.4% to Rs 1391.6 crore during the quarter while actual volume sales was up 8.4% at 4.3 million tonnes. Improved realisation and volume partially offset an increase in cost of inputs and resulted in higher operating for ACC.

Profit before interest, depreciation, exceptional items and tax was up 104.3% at Rs 391.2 crore during the quarter as compared with Rs 191.5 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Interest cost was down 32% at Rs 14.4 crore while depreciation was up slightly at Rs 61 crore.

ACC’s shares closed the day at Rs 981.5 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1.1% lower that the previous day’s close. Market watchers say this is in line with broad Sensex performance. However, industry analysts maintain that ACC’s results were not in line with expectation, around Rs 20 crore lower, so the stock may take a beating in Friday’s trading session.

The cement industry recorded a growth of about 9.44% during the calendar year ’05 as compared with 8.3% in the previous period. During the nine period between January-September ’06, it grew around 11.9 %.