Mumbai, Oct 22 (Inditop.com) DCM Shriram, a major player in the fertiliser and chemicals business, Thursday reported a 5.6 percent increase in its earnings before income, depreciation and tax at Rs.80.31 crore for the quarter ended Sep 30.
The group, which has interests in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products, sugar and rural retail, logged a profit after tax of Rs.13.93 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal compared to Rs.7.12 crore it made in the like period last year.
“We have seen appreciable operating performance in key subsidiary businesses, though certain key areas like fertilisers and agri-business witnessed an impact of drought and to some extent due to floods in Andhra Pradesh,” said company chairman and senior managing director Ajay Shriram.
“However, we started selling power from our captive plants (total capacity 300 MW) to offset the lower offtake in fertilisers and annual maintenance shutdown of our plants,” said Shriram.
Maintenance shutdowns led to a total loss of profit worth Rs.27 crore.
Of this amount, the fertiliser business lost about Rs.9 crore, which the company plans to recoup by the end of the financial year.
The group’s hybrid seeds business, Shriram Bioseeds and Haryali (a 302-strong retail chain of rural stores), has also done well.
Among its key entities, the group plans to hive off Haryali into a 100 percent subsidiary and later look at the option of taking it public.
“Our debt levels have reduced leading to a leaner balance sheet and lower financing cost,” said Shriram.
