Hindustan Construction Company's (HCC) standalone net loss has narrowed down to Rs 17.87 crore during the July-September quarter, as the company today reported a 3% growth in net sales and managed to cut down interest costs marginally.
The leading infrastructure firm had reported a net loss of Rs 40.54 crore during the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
Net sales of the company was up 3.17% to Rs 864.26 crore during the quarter vis-a-vis Rs 837.69 crore for the July-September quarter of FY 12, it said in a filing to the BSE.
Besides, HCC's total expenditure stood at Rs 793.30 crore during the quarter. Its interest cost, at Rs 130.07 crore, during the period was marginally lower than Rs 135.59 crore during the same period of last fiscal.
According to company's filing, implementation of the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) package is under progress. The package was approved by the CDR Empowered Group during the April-June quarter.
In a separate statement, the company said it made an operating profit of Rs 110.60 crore, up over 10% compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal when it stood at Rs 100.10 crore.
As on September 30, 2012, HCC had an order book of Rs 15,084 crore. Besides, it has LI contract (where the contracts are yet to be signed) worth Rs 1,904 crore, it said.
"The environment continues to be challenging for the infrastructure sector. HCC has undertaken several measures to deliver performance even in this lean period," company's Group Chief Financial Officer Praveen Sood said in the statement.
Talking about performances of its subsidiaries, HCC said its Switzerland-based subsidiary Steiner AG reported a profit of 0.96 million CHF (swiss franc) and a revenue of 185.6 million CHF during the period under review. Besides, Steiner has a total order book of 1.45 billion CHF as on September.
Moreover, Lavasa Corporation --another subsidiary of HCC-- has resumed development and construction activities and had launched its new range of apartments at its second town, Mugaon, during the quarter. Lavasa's first town is known as Dasve.
On Dhule Palesner Highway (NH3), which comes under its another subsidiary HCC Infrastructure, the company said it achieved 100% completion for phase I of the project while achieving majority progress under phase II.
Shares of the company were being traded at Rs 17.55 apiece in afternoon trade on the BSE, up 2.03% from the previous close.
