Ambuja Cement on Tuesday reported a 12.73 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 396.01 crore for the quarter ended September 2018, helped by growth in sales volume.

Part of the Swiss cement giant LafargeHolcim, the company had clocked a net profit of Rs 351.29 crore in July-September 2017, Ambuja said in a BSE filing.

Its total income during the period under review rose by 11.84 per cent to Rs 6,097.53 crore as against Rs 5,451.58 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last year.

Ambuja Cement’s total expenses were up 11.81 per cent at Rs 5,540.26 crore in the quarter as against Rs 4,954.91 crore in the year-ago period.

The company follows January-December financial year.

Commenting on the results, Ambuja Cement MD & CEO Ajay Kapur said, “Our continued focus on growing the topline with our well-defined marketing and commercial strategies focusing on the retail consumers, value added portfolio products and service and selling more in our core markets helped deliver a good net sales growth of 10.4 per cent.”

He further said that cost management helped the company to mitigate the impacts of headwinds coming from fuel hike and rupee volatility.

During the quarter, sales volume rose to 5.46 million tons as against 5.02 million tons in July-September 2017.

“Cement volume grew by 9 per cent in Q3/2018 backed by a favorable demand trend,” Ambuja Cement said.

Over the outlook, the company said that GDP growth in the last quarter was encouraging backed by good monsoon.

“Continued focus on GDP growth and infrastructure projects by the government and a strong push on housing for all and affordable housing led to good demand growth in the cement sector. Going forward, we expect this to continue and accelerate further,” Ambuja Cement said.

Shares of Ambuja Cement settled at Rs 201.15 on BSE, down 2.26 per cent from the previous close.

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