52 firms beat 2003-04 show in six months

Its champagne time for shipping, steel, metals and pharma firms.

Shipping, steel, metal and pharmaceuticals companies may well pop champagne corks. The net profit in the first half of the current year of 52 of these firms has surpassed their 2003-04 numbers.

According to Business Standard Research Bureau data, the net profit of 52 companies in the first half of 2004-05 was Rs 4,291.57 crore, Rs 413 crore higher than Rs 3,878.78 crore in 2003-04.

State-owned Steel Authority of India's consolidated profit during the first six months (April-September) of the current financial year stood at Rs 2,624.74 crore, Rs 113 crore more than last year's Rs 2,512.08 crore.

Likewise, Bharti Tele-Ventures' net profit of Rs 629.82 crore in the first half of 2004-05 surpassed last year's net of Rs 584.91 crore. Essar Steel earned a net profit of Rs 119.83 crore in the first half of 2004-05, Rs 45.26 crore more than in 2003-04.
 

First half is a hit
Company	Net profit (Rs crore)
	H1 2005	FY 2003-04
SAIL	2,624.74	2,512.08
Bharti Tele-Ventures	629.82	584.91
Essar Steel	119.83	74.57
Aventis Pharma	99.20	98.57
Ingersoll-Rand	92.02	45.61
CESC	89.00	82.30
Nava Bharat Ferro	76.18	55.64
DSP Merrill Lynch	62.61	52.41
Mercator Lines	52.30	50.09
EID Parry	49.92	43.23
ICI	35.56	31.91
Samtel Color	25.05	12.50
Bharat Earth Movers	24.65	24.17
NIIT Technologies	20.97	17.67
Supreme Petrochem	18.54	12.65
Indian Seamless Steels	17.03	1.61
Usha Martin	16.78	15.52
Sunflag Iron & Steel	16.63	8.49
SE Asia Marine Engg	16.59	9.22
Nagarjuna Agrichem	16.19	11.33
Results reckoner Sept 2004 quarter No. of firms: 894		Sales  Rs 2,37,082 cr
		Net profit Rs 22,834 cr

For these comparisons, Business Standard Research Bureau looked at a sample of 700 companies, many of which are mid- and small-cap companies such as Bihar Caustic, Bhagyanagar Metals, Nava Bharat Ferro, Amara Raja Batteries, Batliboi, Facor, Asian Hotels and Ind Swift Laboratories. Soaring exports added to the overall profitability of many of them.

In the case of some companies, the low base in the corresponding two quarters of the previous year was partly responsible for their performance. These include Yokogawa Industries, Indian Seamless Steel, Amara Raja Batteries, Facor, Binani Metals, Aztek Software and FCL Technologies.

Yokogawa Industries posted a net profit of Rs 2.64 crore in the first half of the current year against a nominal earning of Rs 2 lakh in the last year.

Indian Seamless Steel posted a net profit of Rs 17.03 crore in the first half of this year versus Rs 1.61 crore in 2003-04.

Similarly, Facor's net profit in the first half jumped 252 per cent to Rs 10.08 crore from last year's net profit of Rs 2.86 crore.