Aditya Birla group's flagship firm Hindalco Industries today reported 9.65% decline in standalone net profit at Rs 639.99 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, largely due to increased tax out-go.
The leading aluminium and copper producer had posted a net profit of Rs 708.37 crore in the same quarter of 2010-11.
The net sales of the company, however, were up 11.87% to Rs 7,563.33 crore during the period under review, it said in a filing to the BSE.
Company's tax outgo increased by over 76% to Rs 139.45 crore, while its total expenditure was up 13.45% to Rs 6,948.07 crore.
For the full year 2011-12, Hindalco's standalone net profit was up 4.69% at Rs 2,237.20 crore. Driven by higher volume and realisations, net sales of the company went up 11.54% at Rs 26,353.06 crore in FY'12.
The company, however, did not announce its consolidated results for the quarter and last fiscal.
In a separate statement, Hindalco said, "Net profit for the quarter is marginally lower than that of the corresponding quarter in the previous year due to lower provisioning for taxation in Q4 of FY'11 on account of lower effective tax and tax write-back."
Of the total quarterly revenues, aluminium business contributed Rs 2,499 crore, while revenues from the copper business was Rs 5,154 crore, it added.
Besides, the company allotted 15 crore warrants, worth Rs 2,165 crore, to its promoters on March 22. Of this, "The company has received an amount equal to 25% of the price of each such warrant," it added.
The flagship firm of the Aditya Birla group also raised Rs 3,000 crore through issuing debentures on April 25.
Hindalco's aluminium production was up 4% to 144 kilo tonnes (kt) in the quarter under review, while for the fiscal it reported a growth of 6.69% growth to 574 kt.
Company's alumina production, however, was flat at 344 kt in the fourth quarter and at 1,355 kt for the full fiscal.
Its copper production, during the quarter, increased by 11% to 95 kt, although for the fiscal it was down marginally to 330 kt due to a planned shutdown of the plant.
Talking about the outlook, Hindalco said, "The volatile commodity prices and spiralling energy costs pose significant challenge for the company. The company is confident to mitigate the cost pressure to a larger extent on the strengths of integration in operation and operational efficiencies."
Following the results, shares of the company closed today at Rs 117.40 apiece on the BSE, up 1.16% from the previous close.
