United Western Bank, Voltas & Zydus Cadila results

CORPORATE SCORECARD

United Western Bank posts Rs 31.72 cr loss

The United Western Bank today reported a Rs 31.72 crore loss in the quarter ended December 31, 2004. The Satara-based old private sector bank had suffered a loss of Rs 4.97 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2004.

For the nine months ended December 2004, the loss was lower at Rs 30.48 crore. The bank's interest income rose to Rs 120.46 crore in the third quarter of 2004-05 from Rs 105.85 crore a year earlier.

It, however, reported a drop in income on investments to Rs 39.95 crore from Rs 44.44 crore and also in other income to Rs 14.36 crore from Rs 38.14 crore. The bank's net non-performing assets were 8.92 per cent (Rs 316.55 crore) against 11.58 per cent (Rs 368.04 crore) a year earlier.

Voltas net up 45% to Rs 7.6 crore

Voltas, the air conditioning and engineering services company of the Tata group has posted a 45 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 7.60 crore in the third quarter ended December 2004 against Rs 5.23 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The company's sales rose by 18 per cent to Rs 298.60 crore in the three months ending December 31, 2004 against Rs 253.84 crore in the corresponding three month period ending December 31, 2003.

Other income during the period under review increased from Rs 3.27 crore to Rs 6.01 crore. Total expenditure increased from Rs 250.38 crore to Rs 293.22 crore in the third quarter of FY 2005.

Interest stood at Rs 1.41 crore. For the nine months ended December 2004, net profit increased to Rs 27.58 crore compared with Rs 19.72 crore in the corresponding period of previous year. Net sales increased to Rs 941.73 crore compared with Rs 922.54 crore.

Operating profit increased to Rs 30.65 crore against Rs 19.82 crore. In a press release, Voltas said its performance was driven by strong growth in electromechanical project and services segment (24 per cent), which includes domestic air conditioning and refrigeration business as well as international projects; textile machinery business (46 per cent ) and the machine tool business (66 per cent) being part of the engineering agency and services segment.

While cooling appliances business registered a growth of 35 per cent, the performance of the Hyderabad unit business, under the unitary cooling products for comfort and commercial use segment, was adversely affected owing to lower capacity utilisation.

Zydus Cadila net up by 29% to Rs 40 crore

Zydus Cadila Healthcare, the flagship of the Ahmedabad-based Zydus hroup, has reported a 29 per cent surge in its net profit to Rs 39.5 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, up from Rs 30.6 crore reported in the corresponding period of the last financial year. Net sales for the period was up by 7.9 per cent at Rs 278 crore against Rs 258 crore in the previous year.

The pharmaceutical major, which is all set to enter in the US market, has reported a 10 per cent rise in its net sales at Rs 870 crore by end of the first nine months of the current year and net profit for the same period has increased by 19 percent over the corresponding period in the previous year.

During the quarter, the company signed a pact for a strategic intent with Mayne Group of Australia to set up a joint venture to construct and operate facilities in India to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and select anti-cancer injectible products.

Zydus Cadila also entered into an alliance with Zambon Inc of Italy for contract manufacturing of lyophilised finished dosages forms and to explore opportunities in areas of APIs, fine chemicals and R&D.