India's Shree Cement posts 72.5% plunge in Q3 profit on weak demand, prices

ACC

30/01/2025 11:28

Jan 30 (Reuters) - India's Shree Cement  SHCM.NS  reported a slump third-quarter profit
on Thursday, hurt by weak prices and a slowdown in activity in a seasonally weak period.
    The company's consolidated net profit plunged 72.5% to 1.93 billion rupees ($22.3 million)
in the quarter ended Dec. 31.
    Total revenue from operations dropped 12% to 45.73 billion rupees.
    
    KEY CONTEXT
    Cement prices have been falling for most of last year, including a 11% on-year drop in the
December quarter, which is also a seasonally weak one as the pace of construction activity
slows.
    However, market leader UltraTech  ULTC.NS  and its closest rivals, Adani Group-owned Ambuja
 ABUJ.NS  and ACC  ACC.NS , benefitted as their acquisition spree helped bolster volumes.
    However, while UltraTech and ACC reported upbeat results, smaller companies such as Dalmia
Bharat  DALB.NS  and Orient Cement  ORCE.NS  succumbed to low prices.
    
    PEER COMPARISON 
    
                                     Estimates (next 12       Analysts' sentiment        
                                          months)                                        
                  RIC        EV/EBI  Revenue    Profit   Mean     # of      Stock to     Div
                             TDA     growth     growth   rating*  analysts  price        yield
                                     (%)        (%)                         target**     (%)
 Shree Cement      SHCM.NS    18.28    8.20      20.32   Hold           17     0.97         0.42
 Dalmia Bharat     DALB.NS    11.46    8.50      39.34   Hold           28     0.94         0.50
 UltraTech         ULTC.NS    20.02    16.24     34.35   Buy            37     0.90         0.62
 ACC               ACC.NS      9.56    8.29      25.09   Buy            18     0.78         0.38
 * The mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and
Strong Sell
 ** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means
the stock is trading above the PT

    OCT-DEC STOCK PERFORMANCE
-- All data from LSEG
-- $1 = 86.6120 Indian rupees

    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OCT-DEC STOCK PERFORMANCE    https://tmsnrt.rs/42triWj
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com; 8800437922;))