ACC Q4 Net Down By 9% in March Quarter

The company has recorded marginal improvement in sale value due to per bag price increase during the quarter but sale volume remained flat during the said period. Total operating income of the company stood at Rs 3026.9 crore in Q1CY14 against Rs 2950.9 crore in Q1CY13 with a marginal increase of 2.6%. However, its sale volume remained constant at 6.48 MT as compared with 6.42 MT in same period of last quarter due to low demand of cement in the quarter.

Operating EBITDA of the company went down by 13.5% to Rs 425 crore in Q1CY14 from Rs 491.6 crore in Q1CY13 mainly due to increase in prices of major inputs - namely, coal, fly ash and gypsum and other expenses. Cost of material consumed (which is 15% of total operating income) for the company grew by 9% in Q1CY14 to Rs 461.5 crore and freight and forwarding expenses (22% of operating income) increased by 8.5% to Rs 662.7 crore in Q1CY14. The increase in expenses is more as compared with growth in revenue. Further net profit of the company decreased by 8.7% to Rs 400 Q1CY14 crore as compared with Rs 438 crore in Q1CY13 (after including share of associate profit and minority interest). EBITDA/Ton of the company has sharply come down to Rs.655.8 crore. 

The company witnessed decrease in its profit margin during the quarter. Operating EBITDA margin of the company came down to 14% in Q1CY14 from 17% in same period of last year and net profit margin fell to13% from 15% in Q1CY13. The fall in margin is mainly due to increase in expenses as mentioned above. 
Coming to segment wise performance, cement segment which contribute to 94% of operating profit stood at Rs 2878.8 crore in Q1CY14 against Rs. 2814.8 crore in same period last year while its ready mix concrete segment ( account for 6% of operating revenue) recorded a comparatively better growth of 5% to Rs 178 crore in said period. At CMP of Rs. 1347.7, it is trading at 23.9x of its trailing 12-months earning.