Improved physical performance, favourable international crude prices and products resulted in Chennai Petroleum posting a much better performance for FY17 with a 16% increase in total income at Rs.40607 crore with net profit coming in at Rs.1051 crore, up by a very good 38%.  Interest outgo for the year was at Rs.273 crore, down 22%.

On the other hand, though topline for Q4FY17 rose 3.5% to Rs.9,487 crore, net profit for the quarter slipped 31% (YoY) to Rs.171 crore. This was mainly on account of the 22% rise in total expenses. In fact EBITDA came in 22% lower at Rs.316 crore.

The company had a PBT of Rs.179 crore and thanks to the much reduced tax outgo – down from Rs.17 crore to Rs.8 crore, the net profit fall was shored in.  It had good GRM for the quarter at $6.05/bbl v/s $5.27/bbl (YoY) while crude throughout was at 2085 mmt v/s 2598 mmt in Q3 and much lower than previous Q4 throughput at 2832 mmt.

The company’s equity is at Rs.149 crore and EPS for the fiscal came to Rs.70.57 (FV of Rs.10). Net worth is at Rs.3314 crore.

This is a state owned company with Indian Oil Corporation holding 51.89% of the total promoter holding of 67.29%; balance 15.40% is held by Naftiran Intertrade Company. News has been doing the rounds for some time now that in the process of integrating state oil firms, it could get merged with Indian Oil which had previously merged its fuel retail subsidiary IBP Ltd and refiner Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd with itself. Chennai Petroleum operates two refineries in southern India.