The company announces interim dividend of Rs.0.75 per share
New Delhi, January 22, 2015 – Orient Cement Limited, a part of USD 1.6 billion diversified CK Birla Group, announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. The company has recorded net revenues of Rs. 384 crores and net profit of Rs. 31 crores, reflecting nearly 36% increase in the net profit over Rs 23 crores in the corresponding quarter last year. The company has also announced interim dividend of Rs 0.75 per share today.
| Key indicators (in crores) | ||||
| Q3 FY14 | Q2 FY15 | Q3 FY15 | Year-on-year change (%) | |
| Revenue | 341 | 386 | 384 | 13% |
| Net profit | 23 | 43 | 31 | 36% |
Orient Cement has recorded volume growth of over 4% in Q3 FY15, despite a very slow start to the quarter on account of several festivals coming together in October. The demand in cement industry started to pick-up only in late November led by revival in construction activity. However, the prices realised in Q3 were lower than in the preceding quarter and, as a result, profits recorded a marginal decrease.
The company expects the demand to pick-up in the coming quarter on the back of increased spending in rural and semi-urban housing, and improvement in orders from infrastructure projects.
Deepak Khetrapal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Orient Cement said, “We continue to focus on cost optimisation and our core markets to maximise volumes. This has resulted in our higher-than-industry capacity utilisation for the quarter under report. We look forward to stronger demand in the concluding quarter of this financial year. We are on schedule with the upcoming Greenfield facility in Karnataka and are hopeful of commissioning it by the first quarter of FY16.”
About the CK Birla Group
The CK Birla Group is a US$1.6 billion diversified conglomerate that over the years has developed a strong footprint in manufacturing, engineering, technology, hospitals and education. With over 20,000 employees, 27 manufacturing facilities and a customer base that includes some of the world’s best-known companies, CK Birla Group’s businesses are present across five continents.
The Group’s companies operate in the sectors of Technology and Automotive, Home and Building, and Healthcare and Education. Companies in the Technology and Automotive cluster comprise AVTEC, Birlasoft, GMMCO, NEI and Neosym. These companies are leaders in manufacturing products for the automotive and related industries globally. The Group’s manufacturing capability is further strengthened through its Home and Building solutions companies: HIL, Orient Cement, Orient Electric and Orient Paper. These companies manufacture everyday usage products like paper, fans, kitchen and home appliances, building materials like cement, low weight blocks and panels, pipes and fibre roofing sheets.
CK Birla Group also has two hospitals in Kolkata: CMRI, a multi-specialty hospital with and BM Birla Heart Research Centre, the first NABH-accredited research and treatment centre for heart disease. The CK Birla Group has a presence in the Education sector through the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata and Rukmani Birla Modern High School, Jaipur.
The CK Birla Group is deeply committed to creating sustainable positive impact. The Group allocates significant resources to philanthropic initiatives; including those in science and technology, art and culture, and heritage preservation. The Group also works to improve the livelihoods of rural and underprivileged communities.
For more information visit us at www.ckbirlagroup.com
About Orient Cement
Orient Cement Limited is part of USD 1.6 billion diversified CK Birla Group. Earlier a division of the multi-product, multi-unit Orient Paper and Industries Limited, Orient Cement has recently de-merged and become a public limited company. The company produces 5MTPA cement annually from its two plants in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Its first Greenfield project at Devapur in Adilabad District, Andhra Pradesh began cement production in the year 1982. In the year 1997, a split-grinding unit (also a Greenfield project) at Nashirabad, in Jalgaon, Maharashtra was added.
Orient Cement is certified for both ISO 9001:2008, and ISO 14001:2004 and also OHSAS 18001:2007 from Det Norske Veritas, Netherlands. The company sells cement under its popular brand Birla A1 Premium Cement in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh, Gujarat and MP.
Media contact:
Priyanka Sachdeva; +91 7838311985; priyanka.sachdeva@bm.com
Shankar Radhakrishnan; +919999384812; Shankar.Radhakrishnan@bm.com