ABB Limited profits have dropped 3.52 per cent to Rs 21.37 crore on a standalone basis for the third quarter this fiscal. The fall in net profit has been attributed to the challenging economic environment, a press release from the company said on Tuesday.
The company’s income from operations was up 3.73 per cent at Rs 1,808.61 crore compared with the same quarter last year. The company’s EPS stood at Rs 1.01, against Rs 1.05 last year.
ABB has decided to discontinue accounting for change in fair value of embedded derivative contracts effective January 1, 2012 to better represent its operational performance. Due to change in this policy profit before tax for and up to Q3 2012 is higher by Rs 13 crore.
“The moderate decline in profit was a result of delayed projects and the accounting policy to take all anticipated increase in project costs due to slow progress in some large infrastructure and industrial projects,” said Bazmi Husain, Country Manager and Managing Director, ABB Ltd.
“We expect opportunities to grow in emerging sectors like smart grids, cyber security, renewables and energy efficiency solutions where we have already seen significant traction,” he added.
Orders
The company received orders worth Rs 1,679 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 2012, compared to an order intake of Rs 2,493 crore for the same period last year.
Delays in finalisation of large orders resulted in an overall decrease in orders during the quarter. However, there was a significant increase in manufacturing, industrial and urban infrastructure orders.
Backlog
The company’s order backlog continued to remain strong and stood at Rs 9,062 crore at the end of September, against Rs 9,151 crore for the corresponding period in 2011.