Crossing the trillion-mark

India Inc was on a roll in 2004-5. The year proved to be a record-breaking year for Corporate India, as net sales and net profits for the country's top 1,000 companies crossed Rs 10 trillion and Rs 1 trillion, respectively.

The story of this excellent performance has been told in this year's BS 1000, with in-depth analyses of the reasons for the steep rise in profits.

Essentially, corporate India is reaping the benefits of the restructuring exercise of the past decade and has managed to shrug off the rising oil prices and higher input costs to post a small improvement in operating margins.

With strong demand, the revenues of the BS 1000 companies increased by 23.64 per cent, up from 17 per cent last year.

The improvement in top-line growth translated directly into excellent net profit margins.

While net profits shot up by 40 per cent, operating profit margins moved up to 17.58 per cent, up from 17.55 per cent last year, and net profit margins increased from 7.89 per cent to 8.91 per cent.

The top 100 companies also got much bigger in the year, with a 77.5 per cent share in sales and 88.7 per cent share in net profits. Year-on-year, net sales were up by over 23.70 per cent, while net profits shot up by 40 per cent.

Indian Oil remained India's biggest company, while Reliance Industries continued to be the biggest private sector player. The slot for the most profitable company was bagged by ONGC, while Reliance Industries dislodged Indian Oil from its position as the second most profitable company.

As in past years, BS 1000 has also ranked unlisted companies, because big chunks of corporate India, including many large companies, are still not listed.

Hyundai Motors tops the list of private unlisted companies in terms of sales and BSNL is at the head of the unlisted public sector units.