The Business Bytes
New Delhi, July 18, 2024 (TBB Bureau): Dalmia Bharat Ltd, a prominent cement manufacturer, on Thursday announced a modest 0.7 per cent increase in its net profit for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2025 (Q1FY25), reaching Rs 145 crore as of June 30, 2024. In the same quarter last year, the company reported a net profit of Rs 144 crore, according to a company statement.
The company’s revenue from operations experienced a slight decline of 0.2 per cent, totalling Rs 3,621 crore compared to Rs 3,627 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
However, at the operational level, there was a notable 9.2 per cent increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization), which rose to Rs 669 crore for this quarter, up from Rs 613 crore in the same quarter last year.
The EBITDA margin improved, standing at 18.5 per cent in the first quarter of FY25, compared to 16.9 per cent in Q1FY24. Additionally, cement sales volumes grew by 6.2 per cent year-on-year, reaching 7.4 million tonnes (MnT), up from 7 MnT in the previous year’s corresponding quarter.
Commenting on theperformance, Dalmia Bharat Limited Managing Director & CEO Puneet Dalmia said, “The continuity of the incumbent government at the Centreensures policy stability and a continued focus on infrastructure spending, which bodes well for cement sector’s long-term prospects, particularly cement demand. During the quarter, even though cement demand was weak across regions amidst general elections, our volumes grew 6.2 per cent YoY while margins improved to 18.5 per cent from 16.9 cent last year.”
Dalmia Bharat Limited Chief Financial Officer Dharmender Tuteja said “The cement pricing continued to be weak during the quarter, but we saw a notable improvement in margins due to better input prices and reversal of certain cost inefficiencies of the previous quarter. We are progressing well on the long-term levers of margin improvement including investment in brand, renewable energy and operationalizing captive coal mines.”
“We have added 2 MnT of cement capacity in South and are on track to add another 2.9 MnT in North East and East region during FY25. Our strong balance sheetpositions us well for the next phase of expansion,” he added.
The company commissioned 1 MnT cement capacity each at its existing units at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh respectively. This takes company’s overall installed capacity to 17 MnT in South and 46.6 MnT in India, and is in line with the long-term growth strategy of increasing the total capacity to 110-130 MnT by the 2031.
