Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals today said it has recorded a 15.7 per cent jump in its 2009-10 net profit at Rs 172.05 crore on a higher price realisation in the last quarter of FY10, combined with better gas availability and declining raw material prices.
The company's income from operations, however, declined to Rs 1,287.98 crore as against Rs 1,412.10 crore as price realisations across the fertiliser segment for the better part of last year were lower coupled with a decline in volumes of traded bulk fertilisers.
"Prices peaked in the previous year during the pre-meltdown time. But post the meltdown, prices fell. However, in the last quarter of FY'10, prices climbed back to almost 95 per cent of their pre-meltdown level. This, coupled with better gas availability and falling raw material prices, helped us post a good growth," Deepak Fetilisers' vice-chairman and Managing Director Sailesh C Mehta told PTI here.
The firm expects FY11 to be a "positive" one as "raw materials and gas availability will pose no problem and pricing will also be good", Mehta said.
Besides, the company is upping its capacity of technical ammonium nitrate (TAN) from the present 1-lakh tpa to 4-lakh tpa, he said.
The investment in this capacity expansion is around Rs 650 crore and it is expected to be commissioned by mid-September this year, he said.
The company is looking at some businesses in the agri-sector and chemicals and these are presently under study, Mehta said.
In the agri-sector, the firm intends to go beyond the standard bulk fertilisers into crop-and-soil-specific customised fertilisers and then buying the produce from farmers for export, he said.
In the chemicals segment, the firm is studying extensions of its existing product lines, he said.
"The company is now firmly geared-up for growth with all the ingredients in place," Mehta said.
