Tata Steel’s profit more than doubles in Q1

Tata Steel’s first-quarter profit more than doubled over last year, but failed to meet analysts’ expectations due to a one-time charge.

The company’s consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June came in at Rs 1,934 crore, compared to Rs 921 crore, in the same quarter last year. A Reuters poll of analysts had pegged the profit at Rs 2,644 crore.

Tata Steel’s revenue for the quarter grew 22% to Rs 37,833 crore.

While the revenue from the company's India operations grew 14% to Rs 16,405. Revenue at its Europe operations grew 17%, and 29% in South-East Asia.

The Mumbai-headquartered company said it incurred a one time charge of Rs 335 crore on account of provisions for impairment of investments and provisions for demands and claims during the quarter.

Tata Steel also said its total deliveries for India operations increased 7.9% in Q1, with domestic deliveries growing 13.7%. Automotive segment sales rose nearly 50% from last year, while industrial products and projects segment grew 37% and the engineering sub segment saw a 68% growth year-on-year.

The company's capital expenditure during the quarter was Rs 1,931 crore, and it said spends would increase towards the latter part of the fiscal year to stay on track with the its capex guidance of Rs 7,000-8,000 crore for FY19.

Tata Steel’s gross debt had risen by around Rs 22,000 crore, taking the total to over Rs 1 lakh crore, Koushik Chatterjee, executive director and CFO of Tata Steel said while speaking to the media on Monday. He said the increase in debt can mostly be attributed to the company’s acquisition of Bhushan Steel through the IBC process.

Speaking on the Bhushan Steel acquisition further, the management said that the last two months (since the takeover) have been smooth and some synergies have already started to trickle in.

The board also approved issue of debt securities of up to Rs 12,000 crore in the form of non-convertible debentures. The company said the funds will be deployed towards capex and debt repayment.

Speaking about the outlook for the rest of the year, T.V. Narendran, MD and CEO, said the company is optimistic as there is usually more spending on ground in an election year.

He added that trade flows and prices have been impacted by tariff actions being taken on a global level, but higher steel prices in the U.S. have brought some balance to the picture.

Tata Steel’s shares closed down about 1% at Rs 569.2 on the BSE on Monday.