Hindalco Industries posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,456 crore for the year ended March 2011, as against Rs 3,925 crore for 2009-10. Net sales were Rs 72,077 crore as against Rs 60,708 crore for 2009-10, up 19 per cent and the best-ever performance.
The company said strong volumes, improved product mix and higher commodity prices had been the growth drivers. Total expenditure grew by Rs 13,080 crore, to Rs 66,826 crore for the year, on the back of higher raw material costs.
The Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) fell to Rs 8,433 crore versus Rs 10,069 crore in 2009-10. The latter result was higher, the company said, because of a one-time exceptional gain on derivatives of Rs 2,736 crore. For 2010-11, the company has posted a derivatives loss of Rs 291 crore. D Bhattacharya, managing director, Hindalco, and vice chairman, Novelis (its US subsidiary) said comparing the two Ebitda figures wouldn’t be correct, since the 2009-10 results had exceptional derivatives gains. Adjusted for this, he said, the 2010-11 Ebitda, at Rs 8,724 crore was higher by 25 per cent, when compared against the adjusted Ebitda of Rs 6,983 crore for 2009-10.
Novelis reported profit before tax of $424 million as against $158 mn in 2009-10. Said Bhattacharya: “There is strong aluminium demand in the world, with Asia driving more than 50 per cent of the demand.” He said the demand was expected to remain strong, growing by eight to 10 per cent. The company said the shipments of Novelis for 2010-11 grew 10 per cent, at 2,969 kilo tonne. Net sales reached $10.6 billion, up by 22 per cent over 2009-10.
The adjusted Ebitda of Novelis for the given year grew 42 per cent to $1.1 billion.
Bhattacharya said the Australian subsidiary had done well and managed its highest copper production ever.
He said, "We restarted operations at Mt Gordon mines in April and the company had a cash and cash equivalent of A$144 million as on March 31."
He said the Australian company was completely debt-free and looking at organic and inorganic routes to grow. It was evaluating prospectives for acquisition. Novelis, he said, would spend $1.5 bn in the next three years for expansion and de-bottlenecking. Capacity at Novelis is to go up by a million tonnes, to four mt, by 2015-16.
For the expansion in India, Sunirmal Talukdar, Chief Financial Officer, said the company would shortly raise debt of under Rs 8,000 crore for its Aditya Alumina & Aluminium Project (Rayagada, Orissa). Equity for the project was fully tied up, he said.
