Bharat Forge shares up on quarterly results

MUMBAI: Bharat Forge, the world's second largest forgings maker, on Tuesday reported 63.87 per cent jump in standalone net profit at Rs 100.39 crore in Q4 FY'11, helped by a strong growth in domestic sales as well as in Europe and US markets.

The Pune-based company had posted a net profit of Rs 61.26 crore during the corresponding quarter of 2009-10.

At 10:15 am, shares of Bharat Forge were trading 2.66 per cent up at Rs 312.50 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"We have posted profit in both auto components and non-automotive space in the fourth quarter. Our non-auto business has become one of the major drivers of our business and we expect this business will continue to be strong this fiscal also," Bharat Forge Chairman and Managing Director Baba N Kalyani told reporters here.

"Despite soaring commodity prices, we have done well in the last fiscal. We are quite optimistic for this fiscal."

The company plans to invest around Rs 250-300 crore over the next two years to expand its forgings and machining capacity, he said.

The company is increasing forging capacity by 15 per cent by setting up a heavy press line and is also expanding machining capacity for crankshafts.

Its non-auto contribution to the standalone business increased from 30 per cent in FY'10 to 37 per cent in FY 11.

Total revenue grew by 45.44 per cent at Rs 836.54 crore during the fourth quarter as compared to Rs 575.14 crore in the same period last year.

Of this, the income from Indian operations rose by over 30 per cent at Rs 478.32 crore, while revenues from overseas operations went up by over 63 per cent at Rs 358.17 crore, the company said.