The Hindu Business Line : BILT net up 68 pc at Rs 68 cr in Q4

Pulp and paper manufacturer Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT) on Tuesday announced an increase of 67.73 per cent in its net profit to Rs 67.88 crore in the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2006. This included a profit of Rs 12.4 crore from the sale of assets in the quarter.

The company's revenues in the period increased by 8.7 per cent to Rs 571.35 crore from Rs 525.35 crore in the corresponding period last year. According to the company, revenues were helped by growth in sales of paper and paper products, which grew by 15.8 per cent to Rs 477.49 crore in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, BILT's net profit increased by 26.13 per cent in the financial year ending June 2006, to Rs 212 crore from Rs 168.09 crore in the previous year. It also reported a 4 per cent increase in total revenues to Rs 2,086 crore in the financial year.

Announcing the results, Mr R.R. Vederah, Joint Managing Director, BILT, said, "The current year's performance reflects a concerted growth strategy to enhance capacities, increase in productivity and unlocking of value for shareholders. It has also been supported by a firm demand growth across the paper industry."

The company is planning to invest Rs 1,200 crore for capacity expansion of both its domestic and international units to achieve an overall manufacturing capacity of one million tonnes, which includes both paper and pulp manufacturing, by 2008. "For the domestic units a total of Rs 900 crore will be invested in the next two years, which will see our capacity increase by 2.5 lakh tonnes by June 2008," said Mr B. Hariharan, Group Finance Director, BILT.

On the overseas front, he said the company would invest about $50-60 million in the next three years on pulp capacity expansion of Sabah Forest Industries in Malaysia, which it had acquired recently.

On the issue of increasing input costs, Mr Vederah said, "We are looking at increasing the prices of coated paper by about Rs 750 per tonne with effect from September."

The company had increased the prices of coated paper by Rs 1,000 per tonne and that of uncoated paper by Rs 600 in July. However, he said, the company would not tinker with the prices of uncoated paper for the time being.

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