Dalmia Bharat

This is a cement making company and by end of Dec’14 it will have a total consolidated capacity of 24 MTPA, the fourth largest cement company in India. Its USP is its market – from being recognized as a Southern compay, it has made deep entrenchments into East and North East of India. It made its presence in these regions through acquisitions on OCL India in Odisha, Calcom Cements in Assam and Adhunik Cement in Meghalaya. At the same time, it is expanding its capacity in Karnataka, ensuring its presence in South. Currently 79% of its revenue comes from South and by FY16, hopes to bring it down to 60%.

The company continued with its loss making record into Q2FY15 too. Its consolidated net sales at Rs.693 crore was down 3% (YoY). It brought down its total costs by 7% led by a 10% drop in power and fuel costs. Other income of Rs.27 crore also came in but what really did the company in was the interest outgo of Rs.92 crore,a  rise of 24% (YoY). This pushed the net profit into a loss at Rs.17 crore v/s loss of Rs.27 crore in Q1 and loss of Rs.26 crore in previous Q2. But at the EBITDA level, which was at Rs.127 crore, it showed a 97% sequential rise and 26% (YoY) rise. QoQ, EBITDA margin improved from 9% to 19% and from 14% (YoY). The net sales realization for the quarter was at Rs.4574/ton compared to Rs.4208/ton in Q1. Thus its cement EBITDA/ton for the quarter was at Rs.759/ton, which has doubled up from Rs.328/ton in Q1. It debt currently stands at Rs.4600 crore and unless interest costs come down, it will continue to remain in red.