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Grasim Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, has reported 17 per cent fall in December quarter net profit at ₹787 crore (₹952 crore), largely due to wider loss in its subsidiary Idea Celular.
Net revenue was up 60 per cent at ₹15,291 crore (₹9,577 crore).
Take on competition
The share of loss inherited by Grasim from Idea Cellular increased multi-fold in the December quarter to ₹₹359 crore against loss of ₹18 crore logged in the same period last year. Grasim owns 28 per cent in Idea Cellular which is being merged with Vodafone India to take on competition from Reliance Jio.
Sushil Agarwal, Director and Group CFO, Grasim Industries, said Idea Cellular merger with Vodafone will be completed before the September-end deadline as it has received all regulatory approvals except for the clearance from the Department of Telecommunication.
The recent consolidation in the industry will bring more sanity and put brakes on mobile tariff war.
With the combined strength of Vodafone and total saving of about $10 billion, he said Idea is well placed to take on competition and fall in Idea Cellular performance will be arrested.
Even after Idea impact, Grasim's consolidated EBITDA was up 44 per cent at ₹2,696 crore (₹1,878 crore).
On a standalone basis, Grasim net profit was up 43 per cent at ₹474 crore on better VSF and chemicals realisation. Revenue was up 62 per cent at ₹4,428 crore and EBITDA was up 54 per cent at ₹920 crore.
The company’s standalone surplus reduced to ₹607 crore from ₹1,844 crore as it took over debt of ₹2,200 crore post the merger of Aditya Birla Nuvo with itself.
On a consolidated basis, it has debt of ₹14,464 crore against surplus of ₹2,023 crore logged in March-end.
Dilip Gaur, Managing Director, said the contribution of chemical business will also increase in the coming days as the company exported chlorine as export prices firmed up.
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