High iron ore prices and improved sales helped NMDC Ltd, India's largest public sector mining firm, almost double its profits for quarter-ended March 2011, over corresponding last quarter.
The company reported a 96 per cent growth in net profits at Rs 2,098.6 crore for March quarter as against Rs 1,065.5 crore in corresponding quarter previous year. Revenues for the quarter grew 89 per cent to Rs 4,213 crore (Rs 2,228 crore).
For the year-ended March 2011, NMDC reported a net profit of Rs 6,499 crore (Rs 3,447 crore) on revenues of Rs 11,669 crore (Rs 6,239 crore).
Mr Rana Som, Chairman, NMDC, said increase in iron ore prices of over 70 per cent in the second half of fiscal helped the company to achieve such a performance. “We expect to sustain and perform better in 2011-12,” Mr Som said.
Sales and production of iron ore were up 34 per cent and 38 per cent respectively in the March quarter. For fiscal 2011, the sales were up 9 per cent, while the output increased by six per cent. Domestic sales grew by 15 per cent during the year, while exports were down by about a fourth on account of reduced Japanese demand.
NMDC declared a dividend of Rs 2.15 per share of Re 1 each. Including the interim dividend of Rs 1.15, the total dividend stands at Rs 3.30 on par value of Re 1 each. The NMDC scrip gained 1.86 per cent to close at Rs 258 on the BSE on Friday. The earnings per share for the year on an annualised basis stood at Rs 16.39 per share as against Rs 8.69 per share in the previous year.
The company expects to spend Rs 3,300 crore towards capital expenditure during fiscal 2011-12 as against Rs 720 crore spent during the year, said NMDC Finance Director, Mr S. Thiagarajan. The company has a cash reserve of Rs 19,200 crore from which it expects to finance all its ongoing expansion plans and acquisitions, Mr Som said.
NMDC will be looking at acquiring overseas companies with mineral assets of coking coal, coal, iron ore, rock phosphate and manganese. Early this week, NMDC signed an MoU to acquire 50 per cent stake in Australian firm Legacy Iron Ore Ltd.