UltraTech Q2 net vaults over 55% to Rs410 crore

UltraTech Cement Limited, an Aditya Birla Group Company, today reported a 55.30 per cent increase in its after-tax (net) profit at Rs410 crore for the July-September 2014-15 quarter against a net profit of Rs264 crore in Q2FY'14.

Profit before Interest, depreciation and tax stood at Rs951 crore against Rs717 crore in the previous year quarter while net sales stood at Rs5,382 crore compared to Rs4,503 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, unaudited financial results for the quarter ended 30 September 2014 showed.

The combined cement and clinker sales were 10.35 million tonnes (9.22 million tonnes) while it was 3.02 lakh tonnes (2.94 lakh tonnes) for white cement and wall care putty.

Ultratech, India's largest cement maker, said its domestic cement sales increased by 11 per cent during the quarter, on the back of higher demand and additional volume from the acquired units in Gujarat.

Costs were impacted mainly on account of increase in prices of petcoke, input material and royalty on limestone, it said.

On a consolidated basis, after-tax profit stood at Rs416 crore against Rs283 crore while profit before interest, depreciation and tax stood at Rs987 crore against Rs773 crore.

Net sales stood at Rs5,723 crore compared to Rs4,849 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The company's on-going capex is on track. UltraTech commissioned a 1.4 million tonne cement mill at Rajashree Cement, Karnataka and a 25 MW thermal power plant at Tadipatri, Andhra Pradesh. With this the company's total cement capacity in India stands at 60.2 million tonnes and the total power capacity (including WHRS) at 733 MW. This caters to around 80 per cent of the company's power requirement.

Cement demand in the country is expected to grow over 8 per cent with renewed government focus on housing and infrastructure spending.