BHEL net down over 41% at Rs695 crore in Q3’FY14

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has registered an over 41 per cent drop in net profit at Rs694.81 crore in the October-December quarter of the current financial year (2014-14) amidst falling sales and competition from abroad, mainly from low-cost manufacturers in China.

The state-owned power equipment maker had reported a net profit of Rs1,181.85 crore in the same period of the 2012-13 fiscal.

Income from operations during the October-December 2013-14 quarter stood lower at Rs8,919.53 crore, against Rs10,539.50 crore in the year-ago quarter, BHEL said in a regulatory  filing.

However, the company said figures for the third quarter of the 2013-14 financial year are not comparable with those of the year-ago quarter as it comes after the merger of Bharat Heavy Plates & Vessels Ltd (BHPV) with the company, BHEL noted.

While BHPV added Rs38.55 crore to post-merger sales / income from operations of BHEL, profit from ordinary activities before tax took a Rs16.41 crore hit during the December quarter, BHEL pointed out in its filing.

The sluggish business conditions also affected revenue from the power segment, which declined to Rs7,319.59 crore in Q3 from Rs8,302.96 crore in the year-ago quarter.

BHEL's outstanding order book position stood at about Rs1,00,600 crore at the end of December 2013.

The board of directors of the company has approved an interim dividend of Rs1.31 per share, involving an outgo of Rs321 crore on a total of 2,447.6 million shares as of end-December 2013.

The interim dividend would be "paid/dispatched on February 20, 2014" and February 10 has been fixed as the record date for the paying the same.