Solar Industries , one of the largest packaged explosives manufacturing companies, has reported an 11 per cent increase in its March quarter net profit at Rs 75 crore, on the back of a major order from housing and infrastructure projects.

Revenue in the quarter under review was up 17 per cent at Rs 673 crore. The company has announced a final dividend of Rs 7 per share.

Solar Industries’ revenue from housing and infrastructure projects was up 44 per cent at Rs 234 crore (Rs 163 crore), while revenue from Coal India increased to Rs 129 crore (Rs 108 crore). Revenue from the defence sector jumped four times to Rs 57 crore (Rs 19 crore).

Revenue from exports and institutional sales were down 16 per cent and 17 per cent at Rs 170 crore (Rs 203 crore) and Rs 66 crore (Rs 79 crore).

The company has an order book of Rs 1,146 crore from Coal India (Rs 530 crore), Singareni Collieries Company (Rs 220 crore) and the Defence (Rs 396 crore).

Manish Nuwal, Managing Director and CEO, Solar Industries, said the domestic business had witnessed strong demand from the infrastructure segment, particularly road construction, though the demand from the coal mining sector was quite subdued due to lower over-burdened growth.

Export and overseas business witnessed a growth of 20 per cent this fiscal, despite some key units continuing to witness challenging business conditions.

Turnover from defence products sales increased almost four times to Rs 170 crore. With a significant order in the pipeline, the company expects turnover from the defence sector to touch about Rs 300 crore this fiscal, it said.

Shares of the company were down one per cent at Rs 1,055 on Friday.

comment COMMENT NOW