Madras Cements net up, pays same

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 6. Madras Cements has reported a net profit of Rs. 48.40 crores during the year ended March 31, 2001 against Rs. 40.22 crores in the previous year on an improved turnover of Rs. 618.33 crores (Rs. 516.17 crores). The board of the company, which met here on Wednesday, decided to maintain the dividend at 55 per cent.

Interest costs have gone up marginally to Rs. 65.41 crores (Rs. 61.12 crores). After providing Rs. 52.73 crores (Rs. 46.37 crores) for depreciation, the profit before tax is placed at Rs. 60.04 crores (Rs. 45.47 crores). The company has made a provision of Rs. 11.64 crores (Rs. 5.25 crores) towards taxation. Sources have explained that the company will pay only the MAT (minimum alternate tax) of Rs. 5.18 crores for 2000-01. The balance will be adjusted against MAT payments in earlier years. This is expected to leave the company with good cash flow.

Realisation of close to Rs.20 crores through its foray into RMC (ready mix concrete) segment has partly contributed to higher sales during the year. The firmness in price too contributed to higher sales revenue.

A combination of cost cutting exercises, company sources say, has resulted in improvement in the net profit of the company.

Last month, the company commissioned its 15 lakh tonne second greenfield project at Alathiyur. Further, the upgradation of its second kiln at R.R. Nagar was also completed. This has improved the capacity of the blended cement from this unit to 11 lakh tonnes from 10 lakh tonnes. The company has also drawn up plans to boost the recently taken over mini-cement plant at Mathod in Karnataka. The plant came under the fold of Madras Cements when it acquired the assets of Karnataka Minerals & Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Originally, it had a capacity of 66,000 tonnes a year. Madras Cements invested close to Rs. 22 crores in debottlenecking and refurbishing exercise to boost the capacity to 1.5 lakh tonnes. It is proposing to invest another Rs. 40 crores to take the capacity further up to 3.40 lakh tonnes.

The company is still in the process of identifying a suitable site to locate its proposed dry mortar plant near Chennai.

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Section  : Business
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