Visaka Industries Q1 net up 23% at Rs 2.79 crore

Visaka Industries has registered a 23 per cent growth in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2004. Net profit for the quarter touched Rs 2.79 crore as compared to Rs 2.26 crore posted in the same quarter last fiscal.

Turnover for the quarter increased 52 per cent to Rs 54.96 crore as compared to Rs 36.24 crore earned during the corresponding quarter last year. The company has declared an interim dividend of 10 per cent.

Addressing a press conference to announce the company's first quarter results, G Vivekanand, managing director of Visaka Industries Limited, said that the revenues of the asbestos cement division increased by 51 per cent to Rs 36.16 crore as compared to Rs 24.01 crore earned in the corresponding quarter last year.

The profit before tax of this division increased 40 per cent to Rs 4.55 crore from Rs 3.25 crore in the first quarter last fiscal.

Visaka also expects commercial production of the spinning division in Nagpur by September.

"The expansion programme which started in February would be completed by September, which is one month ahead of schedule. The total investment in the expansion of the plant was around Rs 32 crore which was raised through debt and internal accruals," he said.

According to him, the plant would produce around 600 tonnes of yarn a month which is 50 per cent more than the current capacity.

"Around 50 per cent of yarn produced from the plant would be exported as the demand from the international market would increase once the World Trade Organisation (WTO) restrictions are lifted in 2005," he said.

"The land for the Tumkur plant has been acquired and we are in the process of obtaining environmental clearance. Work on this project will begin as soon as we get the clearances from the concerned government departments," he said.

During the first quarter, the turnover of the synthetic blended yarn division increased by 53.72 per cent to Rs 18.8 crore as compared to Rs 12.23 crore earned in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.