Tata Chemicals reported a marginal drop of 5 per cent in the fourth quarter ended March 31, at Rs 139 crore against Rs 146 crore in the year-ago period. The net sales for the quarter stood at Rs 3,398 crore, against Rs 2,630 crore in the corresponding period last year, an increase of 29 per cent.

The company’s finance costs also saw a rise in the fourth quarter (Rs 121 crore) compared to the same previous period (Rs 83 crore).

On a yearly basis, the company reported a 28 per cent increase in net profits, at Rs 838 crore for the year ended March 31, 2012, against Rs 654 crore for the corresponding period last year.

COST-PUSH

Mr R. Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals, said: “We have experienced about 1.5 per cent of margin erosion across all our products because of the cost-push which we have been unable to pass onto the consumers.”

“The cost pressure is mainly on account of packaging costs coming under pressure, distribution costs rising owing to higher rail fares and rise in prices of silver iodide impacting our water purifier

business,” he added.

On the company’s capex plans, Mr P. K. Ghose, Executive Director & Chief Financial Officer, Tata Chemicals, said: “The capex amount for last year stood at Rs 500 crore. This year we plan to

invest about Rs 1,000 crore towards capex for all our units in India and abroad. As of now, we plan to raise this amount through our internal funds.

“These funds will be utilised for replacement of equipment for our Babrala Plant and expenditure in the Mithapur operations.”

The Tata Chemical scrip closed at Rs 317.05 on the BSE on Wednesday, down 0.50 per cent from its previous close

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