The Hindu Business Line : Essar Steel Q2 net falls marginally

Mumbai, Nov. 1 Essar Steel has posted a marginal dip of 1.52 per cent in net profit at Rs 152 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, against Rs 154 crore logged in the same period last year.

Net sales were up 23.18 per cent to Rs 2,561 crore (Rs 2,079 crore) on better price realisation. Total income rose to Rs 2,563 crore (Rs 2,082 crore). Energy cost increased by 27 per cent to Rs 696 crore from Rs 549 crore.

Production of hot rolled coils increased by 14 per cent to 7.8 lakh tonnes for the quarter under review as against 6.86 lakh tonnes last year. Total production registered a growth of 19 per cent at 8.27 lakh tonnes (6.92 lakh tonnes).

Domestic sales registered a growth of 54.75 per cent at 6.19 lakh tonnes compared with 4 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. Exports stood at 2.08 lakh tonnes (2.92 lakh tonnes)

Delisting plans

On its plans to delist equity shares from the BSE and NSE, the company said: “the process of Reverse Book Building (RBB) as per SEBI (Delisting) Guidelines has been successfully completed, and an exit price of Rs 48 per equity share has been discovered.”

The promoters’ shareholding has gone up from 87.08 per cent to 90.7 per cent at the closure of RBB process. The company has received 27,95,778 equity shares (0.25 per cent) from shareholders holding equity shares in physical form within the stipulated period.

As the company is now legally eligible to apply for delisting, upon completion of certain formalities, it shall shortly make formal application to the BSE and NSE.