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Hindustan Copper Ltd, the integrated public sector copper producer of the country, will not be able to hit the market with its proposed follow-on equity offer including 10 per cent divestment this financial year.
The Department of Divestment last month informed the administrative ministry of the PSE – the Union Ministry of Mines -- that the proposed fresh issue and the scheduled divestment were off for the year to March 31.
According to top Government sources, the proposed SAIL and ONGC disinvestment/new issue were still on the DoD's agenda for the FY2011. But senior Government officials expressed doubts whether SAIL would be able to pull it off before the fiscal end considering the delays over keeping the already prepared list of merchant bankers.
Mr Shakeel Ahmed, CMD of HCL, confirmed to Business Line on Friday that the FPO has been taken off from this fiscal's disinvestment list.
Commenting on HCL's Q3 results, Mr Ahmed said the overall margin during the quarter to December 31, 2010, jumped to 29 per cent from 22 per cent in the corresponding period in the previous financial year. It posted about 69 per cent rise in net profit in Oct—Dec quarter at Rs 80.72 crore.
“The average realised copper price per tonne during the third quarter this fiscal was $8,600 a tonne, whereas HCL could produce copper at $3,000 a tonne. Through the financial year we could better our performance significantly also on account of changes in the metal in concentrate production as well as tweaking wire rod production plan,” he explained.
After taking care of increase in certain expenses as also loss on account of rupee appreciation against the greenback during the quarter, the company could produce handsome margin improvement year-on-year.
HCL's PBT for the third quarter stood at Rs 124.22 crore against Rs 73.46 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The quarter's (y-o-y) PBT growth was 69 per cent, but the nine-month (y-o-y) PBT growth was recorded at 159 per cent.
The stock closed flat at Rs 263.40 on Friday on the BSE. A total of around two lakh shares changed hands on the BSE and the NSE.
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