Wockhardt, Marico & Essar Oil Q1 results

CORPORATE SCORECARD

Wockhardt net jumps 61.6%

Overall good growth in domestic business as well as in the regulated markets of the US and Europe helped Wockhardt report a 61.6 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 102 crore for the second quarter ended June 30, compared with Rs 63.4 crore posted during the corresponding previous quarter in 2006.

Consolidated sales stood at Rs 630 crore, up 52.7 per cent, compared with Rs 412 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.

Marico net up 26.42%

Withstanding the impact of the rise in copra prices, hair care and personal products major Marico reported a 26.42 per cent growth in net profit for the quarter ended June 30. Profit for the quarter under review were Rs 39.57 crore compared with Rs 31.30 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year.

The company reported an increase of 16.2 per cent in net sales as turnover touched Rs 396.06 crore (Rs 340.84 crore). However, as predicted by analysts, margins came down from 15.8 per cent in April-June 2006 to 14.26 per cent in the quarter under review.

Essar Oil net down at Rs 5.6 cr

Essar Oil reported a net loss of Rs 5.6 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year compared with Rs 26.9 crore loss during the corresponding quarter last year. Net sales were at Rs 191.3 crore, up 375 per cent, compared with Rs 40.2 crore in the same period a year ago.

Essar Oil informed the stock exchanges that in alignment with the basis of valuation of refinery inventory, it has changed the basis for determining the cost of inventory of traded petroleum products from "first in-first out" to "weighted average" from April 1, 2006.

This has resulted in an increase of loss for the quarter ended June 2006, June 2007 and for the year ended March 2007 by Rs 23 lakh, Rs 53 lakh and Rs 11 lakh, respectively.

In line with the listing agreement, figures for the quarter ended June 2006 has been recast to make it comparable with the current quarter results.