Hindalco raises FY25 capex target to ₹6,000 crore

Mumbai: Hindalco Industries Ltd raised its capital expenditure target for this fiscal to ₹6,000 crore with the Aditya Birla Group company preparing to invest in several projects including alumina refinery, copper recycling plant, battery foil manufacturing unit, and development of Chakla coal mines.

"This year, we would rather spend the cash on the growth capex planned," managing director Satish Pai said on a media call post quarterly earnings. He said the capex will be entirely funded through internal accruals.

Earlier this year, Hindalco said it would spend ₹5,000-5,500 crore on capex in FY25. In FY24, it spent about ₹4,200 crore.


While the company repaid debt of ₹5,195 crore last fiscal, it has "no plans" for repayment this year, Pai said. This comes at a time when Hindalco's consolidated net debt fell to ₹31,536 crore as of March-end from ₹33,959 crore a year earlier.

Lower debt helped narrow net debt-to-Ebitda ratio to 1.21 times from 1.39 times a year ago. A strong performance in FY24 also aided this metric as the company's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the year was 7% higher at ₹25,728 crore.

For the March quarter, Hindalco's consolidated operating profit rose 24% on year to ₹7,201 crore even as revenue remained flat at ₹55,994 crore. Net profit rose by nearly a third to ₹3,174 crore as all business verticals saw improved profitability.

"Hindalco concluded the year with very strong results across all business segments. This was a clear testament to our strategic focus on value-added products and margin improvement," Pai said.

Cost of production fell marginally in the March quarter on a sequential basis, and is expected to decline another 1-2% this quarter, Pai said.