Tata Steel’s net profit in the March quarter was up 37 per cent at ₹9,835 crore against ₹7,162 crore logged in the same period last year, largely due to better realisation.
Revenue from operations increased 39 per cent to ₹69,323 crore (₹50,028 crore). Overall expenses were up 44 per cent to ₹57,636 crore (₹40,103 crore).
The board has approved a dividend of ₹51 per fully-paid equity share and ₹12.75 per partly paid shares.
The company has also approved a proposal to sub-divide one equity share of the company with face value of ₹10 each into 10 equity shares having face value of ₹1 each, subject to necessary approvals.
The record date for the sub-division of equity shares shall be decided by the board and will be intimated to the exchanges separately, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Tata Steel reported consolidated earning before income tax, depreciation and amortisation of ₹15,174 crore (₹14,290 crore), while per tonne it was up at ₹19,832 (₹17,797).
Production during the quarter was down five per cent at 7.62 million tonne (mt) against 8.02 mt recorded in same period last year, while sales increased two per cent to 8.01 mt (7.83 mt). The company expects to commission the 6 million tonne per annum pellet plant at Kalinganagar in the December quarter, followed by the Cold Roll Mill complex and the 5 mtpa expansion.
TV Narendran, Managing Director, Tata Steel, said amid heightened complexity in the face of Covid and geopolitical tensions, the company has pursued several initiatives to de-risk the business particularly across procurement and supply chain and continue to invest in technology and digitisation to drive productivity.
The acquisition of Neelachal Ispat Nigam will be closed by end of June and will be scaled up to drive expansion of high value retail business, he added.
Tata Steel has generated free cash flows of ₹27,185 crore last fiscal despite higher working capital, taxes, and capex. While the Indian business continued to perform strongly with Ebitda per tonne of ₹28,863, the European business generated the highest ever Ebitda per tonne of £133. The company has repaid debt of ₹15,232 crore to bring down the gross debt to ₹75,561 crore while the net debt declined to ₹51,049 crore.