The Hindu Business Line : Tata Chem third quarter PAT at Rs 59.03 cr

TATA Chemicals Ltd (TCL) on Monday reported a rise in profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter ended December 31, 2003, to Rs 59.03 crore as compared to the previous corresponding Rs 55.50 crore. The net sales/income from operations grew to Rs 467.16 crore (Rs 437.46 crore), an official statement said.

Total expenditure was Rs 352.29 crore (Rs 320.77 crore). Depreciation was steady at Rs 33.44 crore (Rs 34.10 crore), while interest dipped to Rs 8.51 crore (Rs 20.08 crore).

According to TCL's statement, its debt had declined to Rs 492 crore by end Q3 (Rs 913 crore) with a weighted average cost of borrowings of 8.5 per cent (10.1 per cent).

Debt equity ratio at end Q3 was 0.26, debt prepayment achieved completely through internal cash generation.

Urea volumes for the quarter were higher by 9 per cent, sales totalling 2,54,000 tonnes.

The company's energy consumption, which was the lowest in the industry, further dipped to 5.23 GCal / tonne.

Soda ash volumes improved by 5 per cent and TCL sustained its market leadership with a 34 per cent share, the statement said. Q3 export volumes in soda ash amounted to 26,000 tonnes.

Tata Salt continued to be the market leader in the edible salt segment with a share of 39 per cent.

Revenues from the fertiliser segment increased 17 per cent to Rs 245 crore (Rs 209 crore) while that from inorganic chemicals reduced by 3 per cent to Rs 222 crore (Rs 228 crore), a fall attributed to the withdrawal of the sales tax benefit on soda ash sales in FY04.

Profit from operations demonstrated a marginal reduction of 1.6 per cent mainly as a result of the withdrawal of this benefit plus a sharp increase in raw material prices and the implementation of the group pricing policy which is seen to impact earnings in the near term, it said adding, these developments also influenced the PBIT performance of the cited business segments. For the just ended nine-month period of FY04, TCL reported a PAT of Rs 188.08 crore (Rs 136.54 crore) on net sales/income from operations of Rs 1,258.02 crore (Rs 1,181.60 crore).