MUMBAI: Owing to higher expenses and costs, UltraTech Cement on Monday reported a 11.31 per cent dip in its consolidated net profit at Rs 725.90 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, 2017 as against Rs 818.56 crore recorded during the same period a year ago.
The company’s net profit shot up 9.55 per cent to Rs 2,714.92 crore while total income rose a mere 1.52 per cent to Rs 29,294.05 crore as against Rs 28,855.39 crore a year ago. Total expenses were up 14.33 per cent to Rs 7,710.32 crore.
The firm, part of the Aditya Birla Group, saw its total income growing by 4.12 per cent to Rs 8,164.72 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 7,841.05 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.UltraTech said its upcoming cement plant at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, with 3.5 mtpa capacity was on track and commercial production may commence from the fourth quarter of 2019. It has commissioned grinding units at Maharashtra and Bihar, the company said. This complements the acquisition of the cement assets from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and including its overseas operations, Ultratech’s cement capacity stood at 95.4 mtpa.
“Domestic grey cement sales were 47.62 million tonnes for the full year and 13.35 million tonnes for fourth quarter of FY17. White cement and wall care putty recorded sales of 13.18 lakh million tonnes and 3.86 lakh million tonnes respectively for the quarter ended on March 31, 2017,” the company added.