About The Company
India Cements, India’s leading cement manufacturer of South India.Indian Cements 1.10 mt capacity went on stream in April 09’. The company is investing Rs 300 crore for establishing a cement plant with an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (tpa) in Rajasthan and this investment is through Indo Zinc. The total project cost is Rs.600 crore and of this, Rs.300 crore it plans to bring in from debt. This is the second foray of the company into north India, its first project is in Himachal Pradesh, which unfortunately has been embroiled in infra bottlenecks. Its unit in Maharashtra is up and running.
Clearly India Cements is breaking its image of being just a South India based company. These forays into other parts of India will thus help the company get a better-rounded growth. Huge capacities are to go on stream in this fiscal, and it will leave the industry with surplus capacities.
The company has presented a good set of results for the first quarter ended 30th June 2009. Net revenues were up 9% at Rs 953.48 crore on a YoY. EBITDA/tonne was at Rs 1188 as against Rs 877 on a QoQ while it was at Rs.1092 on YoY. Net profit rose just marginally by 2% at Rs 144.28 crore.
The pressure is more evident on the profit margins. OPM was down to 30% as against 34% in Q1FY09. The quarter saw a sharp rise in ‘other expenses’; it was up YoY by 74%. These expenses included Rs.13.47 crore on account of dry docking expenses on a ship. Its power, fuel and freight costs remained flat when compared on a sequential basis.
The subdued performance was mainly on account of lower demand from parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh is the largest consumer of cement in South and in Q1, consumption was flat in that region as most of the infra projects were put on hold due to the elections. But now with elections over and done with, it is expected that cement would see a pick up in this current Q2 quarter.
About The Stock
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