ABG Shipyard, Indo Asian, Core Projects, Essar Steel results

Mumbai-based shipmaker ABG Shipyard reported 42.84 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 27.07 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, against Rs 18.95 crore for the corresponding quarter last year. Total income from operations grew 47.45 per cent at Rs 167.99 crore for the reporting quarter against Rs 113.93 crore last year.

ABG Shipyard Managing Director Rishi Agarwal said, "We attribute this excellent results to repeat orders from overseas clients for similar ships.

This has resulted in cutting design and other costs along with increasing productivity." He said over 60 per cent of the total orders were repeat ones, even as the company's order book stands at Rs 2,300 crore. The company's EBITDA margin for the reporting quarter stood at 28.85 per cent compared to 28.71 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

Indo Asian net flat at Rs 4 cr

Indo Asian Fusegear Ltd (IAFL), engaged in manufacturing electrical switch-gears and compact fluorescent lamps, on Tuesday reported a 4.33 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 4.34 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, as compared with Rs 4.16 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Sales of the company grew 52.06 per cent at Rs 55.23 crore during the same period compared with Rs 36.32 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. "Steady increase in sales and aggressive expansion in international markets have paid dividends," IAFL CMD V P Mahendru said, commenting on results.

Net profit for the half year ended September 30, 2006, increased by 4.74 per cent at Rs 7.95 crore compared with Rs 7.59 crore in the year-ago period. The sales rose by 48.41 per cent at Rs 100.06 crore as compared with Rs 67.42 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Core Projects net at Rs 6 cr

Core Projects and Technologies consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, increased to Rs 5.86 crore from Rs 1.5 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Its consolidated total income also saw a YoY increase to Rs 30.28 crore from Rs 4.25 crore. The annualised EPS for the quarter was Rs 33.05 as against Rs 18.76 during the previous year.

The company expects to close its FCCB issue of $12.5 million (Rs 58.75 crore) by November 15. It has also declared an interim dividend of 5 per cent, for which the record date is also November 15.

Essar Steel net up 52%

Essar Steel registered a growth of 51.7 per cent in its net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2006. The net profit soared to Rs 154.34 crore at the end of second quarter as against Rs 101.74 crore during the corresponding period last year after providing for finance cost at Rs.136.86 crore, depreciation at Rs 149.01 crore, provision for fringe benefit tax at Rs 1.13 crore, deferred tax at Rs 78.81 crore and provision for current tax at Rs 7.06 crore.

The company registered a growth of 30.97 per cent in total income at Rs 2,081.58 crore compared with Rs 1,589.30 crore during the period under review. The capacity expansion programme from 3 mt to 4.6 mt is progressing rapidly and as part of the activity, the company has to plan a major shutdown for the upgrade of its steel mill and allied facilities.

This, coupled with the unprecedented floods in Surat, impacted the production of steel in Hazira. In spite of this, steel output increased by 18 per cent to 6.86 lakh tonne (5.81 lakh tonne) for the quarter ended September 30, 2006.