UltraTech Q4 net down 16.3 percent, expected to halve capex

MUMBAI (Reuters) - UltraTech Cement Ltd, India's biggest cement producer, reported a 16.3 percent year-on-year fall in profit for the quarter ended March 31.

The company, part of the Aditya Birla Group, reported standalone profit of 7.26 billion rupees for the January-March quarter, falling short of market estimates of 7.68 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net sales rose 1 percent to 53.89 billion rupees.

UltraTech, which has production capacity of 52 million tonnes of cement per year, is expected to cut its capital expenditure by 50 percent in the next 12 months compared with an estimated spending of 44.3 billion rupees in the last fiscal year, according to Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate data. (Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)