Coal India reported a better than expected 54 per cent rise in consolidated net profits for the December quarter aided by higher realisations.
The consolidated net profits grew to Rs 4,037.7 crore for the December quarter as against a net of Rs 2,621.5 crore in the corresponding period last year. The net sales for the quarter grew 21 per cent to Rs 15,349 crore as against Rs 12,687 crore in the corresponding last quarter.
Shares of Coal India gained 1.42 per cent to close at Rs 336.30 on the BSE on Monday.
The standalone net profit of Coal India grew by about 10 times to Rs 1,219.33 crore as against Rs 115.3 crore. The standalone income also grew by close to four times to Rs 1,566 crore as against Rs 400.5 crore for the same period.
Output
Production during the quarter was up by 0.7 per cent to 114.62 million tonnes as against 113.77 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year. However, the off-take was almost flat at 110.2 million tonnes as against 110.4 million tonnes in the corresponding quarter last year.
Coal India, which recently entered into a wage agreement with its employees, made some provisions in the December quarter for the additional outgo. It plans to make the rest of the provision in the March quarter results. In the September quarter, the company had provided for Rs 750 crore towards the wage increase
About 3.65 lakh employees stand to benefit from the 4 per cent rise in basic salaries and 25 per cent increase in gross salaries that will be effective from July 2011 running until June 2016. The wage revision would result in an additional burden of Rs 6,500 crore.
Last month, Coal India buckled under pressure from the Government and rolled back a price increase under the Gross Calorific Value based mechanism effective January 1 after customers protested. The Company had switched to the GCV based mechanism in line with the international norms and had proposed a 12.5 per cent hike in prices. The new pricing is likely to be reviewed early next financial year.
The Coal India Board has also approved the Amarapali coal project in the North Karanpura mines of the Central Coalfields Ltd. This project has an annual production capacity of 12 million tonnes. It is expected to contribute 1.5 million tonnes in next financial year.