HFCL Q1 profit declines by 41.5% to Rs 27.73 cr

Telecom gear maker HFCL today posted 41.55 per cent decline in standalone profit to Rs 27.73 in the first quarter ended on June 30, 2017, mainly on account of increase in material and services expenses.
The company had posted a profit of Rs 47.45 crore in the same period a year ago.
The total income jumped by 62.64 per cent to Rs 909.61 crore in the reported quarter from Rs 559.27 crore in corresponding period of 2016-17.
The expenses of Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited on account of cost of material and services consumed increased by about 41 per cent to Rs 415.56 crore from Rs 295.01 crore during the period under review.

The board of HFCL approved setting up an optical fibre manufacturing facility at Hyderabad with estimated cost of Rs 225 crore which is likely to start operations in 18 months.
"To reduce the input cost and to overcome the worldwide shortage of fibre supply, the Board of Directors of the Company has considered and approved setting up a Optical Fibre Manufacturing Facility...At Hyderabad having capacity of approximately six million fibre kilometre per annum," the company said.

HFCL manufactures optical fibre cable at its Goa plant and at Chennai in company's subsidiary HTL Limited.
"The estimated project cost (of new facility) will be Rs 225 crore. The same is proposed to be funded by way of debt, internal accruals, fresh funding, etc. The Facility is likely to be operational in eighteen months' time," HFCL said.

Shares of HFCL closed at Rs 15.15 a unit, down by 7.9 per cent compared to previous close, at BSE today.