Essar Steel on Wednesday announced a growth of 178 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended March 2005, on a 57 per cent growth in total income (net of excise) and HDFC Bank posted a 30.79 per cent rise in net profit in this period.
If this is good news, the third company to have announced its results on Wednesday - a pharmaceutical company - disappointed.
Merck Ltd posted a 34.73 per cent drop in its net profit to Rs 9.36 crore (Rs 93.6 million), down from Rs 14.34 crore (Rs 143.4 million) in the corresponding quarter last year.
While Essar Steel and HDFC Bank announced their fourth quarter results for 2004-05, Merck announced its first quarter result as it followed a January-December accounting year.
HDFC Bank's reported a net profit of Rs 202.37 crore (Rs 2.02 billion) in the January-March quarter, up from Rs 154.72 crore (Rs 1.54 billion) in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
The bank's total income increased to Rs 1,087.27 crore (Rs 10.87 billion), up 34.84 per cent from Rs 806.31 crore (Rs 8.06 billion) in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
HDFC Bank's net profit for the year ended March 31, 2005, increased to Rs 665.56 crore (Rs 6.65 billion) against Rs 509.50 crore (Rs 5.09 billion) in March 2004.
Its total income during the period jumped from Rs 3,028.96 crore (Rs 30.28 billion) to Rs 3,744.83 crore (Rs 37.44 billion), driven by a sharp rise in other income, mainly fee commission income.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the HDFC Bank scrip ended the day up 0.69 per cent to Rs 562.20.
Meanwhile, during the January-March 2005 quarter, the Ruias-managed Essar Steel's net profit grew up to Rs 272.78 crore (Rs 2.72 billion) from Rs 98.02 crore (Rs 980.2 million) in the same quarter last year.
The total income (net of excise) went up from Rs 1227.11 crore (Rs 12.27 billion) in the quarter ended March 2004 to Rs 1926.64 crore (Rs 19.26 billion) in the quarter ended March 2005.
The massive growth in net profit was after providing for finance costs of Rs 147.73 crore (Rs 72.11 crore), depreciation of Rs 98.46 crore (Rs 95.99 crore) and deferred tax of Rs 181.38 crore (Rs 55.35 crore).
Operating profit for the quarter stood at Rs 699.49 crore (Rs 6.99 billion), a 145 per cent increase over the previous corresponding quarter's Rs 285.66 crore (Rs 2.85 billion).
During the financial year ended March 31, 2005, the company recorded a 65 per cent growth in total income (net of excise) to Rs 6,121.27 crore (Rs 61.21 billion) as compared to Rs 3,717.65 crore (Rs 37.17 billion) last year.
After providing for interest of Rs 550.73 crore (Rs 397.68 crore), depreciation of Rs 394.29 crore (Rs 403.27 crore) and deferred tax of Rs 203.95 crore (Rs 34.08 crore), net profit stood at Rs 590.15 crore (Rs 5.90 billion), nearly 10 times of the previous year's Rs 59.99 crore (Rs 599.9 million).
Commenting on the results, Shashi Ruia, chairman, Essar Steel, said, "The year's results reflect our success in achieving top-line growth and substantially improving profitability. Value added products accounted for over 35 per cent of sales volumes as against 20 per cent last year, having a positive impact on profitability."
The Essar Steel stock closed at Rs 58.80 on BSE, 2.61 per cent lower than Tuesday's close.
Merck's total income (net of excise) declined from Rs 85.90 crore in the first quarter of last year to Rs 76.59 crore in the first quarter of this year. Its scrip lost 0.12 per cent to close at Rs 418 on Bombay Stock exchange on Wednesday.
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