Agro-chemicals manufacturer India Insecticides Ltd (IIL) has registered a 66 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter this fiscal at Rs 22.93 crore against Rs 13.84 crore during the same period last year. The IIL board has also recommended one bonus share each against two shares held in the company for its shareholders.

The company's net turnover rose 18 per cent to Rs 402 crore in Q2 from Rs 340 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Finance costs rose to Rs 18 crore in the first half of the current fiscal as opposed to Rs 14.5 crore in the same period last year. The basic and diluted earnings per share (EPS) stood at Rs 18.08 this quarter against Rs. 10.91 in the corresponding period last year.

“The increase in profits is mainly due to the success of our Dahej plant which was a major investment for the company. There has been good technical production this year, we have already exceeded last year’s total production in the first half. Capacity utilisation is expected to be 75-80 per cent, it was about 40 per cent last year,” Rajesh Aggarwal, Managing Director, IIL, told BusinessLine .

Asked about the rationale for providing bonus shares, Aggarwal said, “This is a reward to stakeholders for loyalty to the company. We see an increase in profitability and we should be able to serve the dividend in the long run.”

IIL has recently operationalised its R&D facility at Chopanki in Rajasthan through a joint venture with Japanese firm Otsuka AgriTechno Co Ltd and a number of patents are likely to be filed this fiscal.

“We are targeting about four to five patents this fiscal through the joint venture, while also launching some off-patent molecules after production begins in January. That should give us a boost in this year’s performance as well,” Aggarwal said..

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