The stock of the cement & cement products company hit a fresh 52-week high today, and has zoomed 31 per cent in the past two weeks. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 4 per cent during the same period.
Birla Corporation reported a fourth quarter net profit of Rs 249.33 crore, up 28 per cent year on year (YoY) from Rs 194.73 crore in the same period last year, on the back strong realisation. The sales volume jumped 24.5 per cent YoY to 4.17 million tons (mt). Revenue grew 24.9 per cent YoY at Rs 2,146 crore.
With a capacity utilisation of 108 per cent, the quarter was one of the best ever quarter for the company in terms of production and sales. The company's Q4FY21 Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) at Rs 405.53 crore and cash profit at Rs 338.16 crore were also the highest ever.
In the wake of improved demand, Birla Corporation managed to raise prices during the March quarter, which led to marginal improvement in realisation per ton, but profitability came under pressure due to a sharp increase in raw material and fuel costs. While Ebitda/ton for Q4FY21 was down 10.3 per cent YoY, for the full-year it went up 4 per cent to Rs 1,012.
The company said it made up for its loss in production and sales at the beginning of the financial year by aggressively rationalising costs. Most notably, finance cost was pared by Rs 91.39 crore, or by 23.6 per cent YoY, to Rs 296.28 crore. The company also benefited from the better than expected recovery in cement demand from the second quarter onwards, especially in the rural sector, which was largely the outcome of the Union government injecting cash into the economy by boosting infrastructure development.
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