The Hindu Business Line : Visaka Industries Q1 net up 136 pc

Visaka Industries Ltd (VIL), a Rs 300-crore asbestos cement, spinning and garments manufacturer, has reported a significant growth of 48.33 per cent in net sales and 136 per cent in net profit for the first quarter of current fiscal ended June 30, 2006.

As per the un-audited financial results, the company has posted a sales turnover of Rs 115.58 crore and a net profit of Rs 9.19 crore as against a sales turnover of Rs 77.91 crore and a net profit of Rs 3.89 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. This translates into an EPS of Rs 8.46 (Rs 3.57) on an expanded equity of Rs 10.97 crore (Rs 10.67 crore).

Addressing newspersons here on Friday after the board meeting, the Managing Director, Dr G. Vivekanand, has attributed the all round improvement in performance mainly to improved capacity utilisation across all divisions, cost efficiencies and better price realisation.

He said the asbestos division has posted a growth of 46 per cent in sales turnover at Rs 82.41 crore as compared to Rs 56.45 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. This division has recorded a growth of 86.5 per cent in profit before tax at Rs 12.06 crore (Rs 6.46 crore).

He said the performance of Shakti Roofings was not taken into consideration during the quarter under review since the merger of this company with Visaka is still in the process of approval by the stock exchanges, shareholders and High Court.

According to Dr Vivekanand, the company expects to obtain the environmental clearance for the Vijayawada project soon and commence commercial production sometime by October this year. The company has already acquired the required land for the Ahmedabad project, he said.

The spinning division of the company has also improved its net sales by 51.36 per cent at Rs 32.49 crore (Rs 21.46 crore). Its profit before tax recorded over five-fold increase at Rs 3.28 crore (Rs 49.43 lakh).

Stating that the garment division has incurred a net loss of Rs 1.66 crore on a sales turnover of Rs 67.5 lakh, Dr Vivekanand said the company expects to break-even in the division during second quarter and set off losses by third quarter.