Balrampur Chini shares fall as Q3 net profit slips 23%

Shares of Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd slipped 6% in the afternoon session on Friday after the firm reported its Q3 earnings. Balrampur Chini Mills net profit fell 23% to Rs 70.47 crore in Q3 against Rs 91.32 crore in a year ago period. Balrampur Chini stock slipped 6% to Rs 447.30 against the previous close of Rs 475 on BSE. Market cap of Balrampur Chini fell to Rs 9,159.30 crore. 

Revenue from operations fell 3.10% to Rs 1192.14 crore in the last quarter against Rs 1,230.38 crore in the December 2023 quarter. Earnings per share (EPS) slipped to Rs 3.49 in Q3 against Rs 4.53 in the December 2023 quarter.

However, Balrampur Chini's EBITDA climbed 9% to Rs 123.6 crore in the December 2024 quarter against Rs 113.4 crore a year ago. EBITDA margin improved to 10.4% in the December 2024 quarter against 9.2% a year ago. 

Lower sugar realizations and subdued demand impacted overall profitability.

In a separate development, the company's board has approved higher capacity of PLA project optimised from 75,000 tonne per annum  (TPA) to 80,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) with a revision in the project's capital expenditure from Rs 2,000 crore (which was based on conceptual planning) to 2,850 crores (gross).

The net capex of the project will be Rs 1,750 crore post expected capital subsidy of Rs 1,100 crore as per U.P. Government Scheme.

This higher investment is determined after detailed engineering including on account of increase in capacity of Plant from 75,000 TPA to 80,000 TPA with lower conversion cost.

The revised capex will be funded through a mix of Rs 1,650 crore in debt and Rs 21,200 crore from internal accruals.