India's Ambuja Cements profit soars on price recovery, volumes growth

Ambuja Cements

03/11/2025 08:46

Nov 3 (Reuters) - India's Ambuja Cements ABUJ.NS said on Monday that its second-quarter profit more than doubled from a year earlier, lifted by a recovery in prices and higher-than-expected volume growth in a seasonally weak period.

The Adani Group firm's net profit surged to 13.88 billion rupees (about $158 million) in July-September from 5.01 billion rupees last year.

Sales volumes jumped 20%, lifting revenue to 51.39 billion rupees from 40.73 billion rupees. Analysts were expecting volume growth between 5% and 15%, data from five brokerages show.

Ambuja also lifted its production capacity target by fiscal year 2028 to 155 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from 140 MTPA previously expected. The company has a capacity of about 107 MTPA at present.

Shares of the company were trading 2.5% higher after the results, taking their year-to-date gains to 7.2%.

For further earnings highlights, click here.

KEY CONTEXT

Ambuja, along with Adani-owned ACC, and larger rival UltraTech Cement ULTC.NS, have managed to shield their volumes from seasonal volatility through a string of deals, analysts said.

The July-September quarter coincides with India's annual monsoon rains season, during which construction activity slows and demand for cement sags, pressuring prices.

Cement prices were little changed from a quarter earlier but up 5% year-on-year, Ambit Research data showed.

For much of fiscal year 2025, cement prices corrected from the previous year's highs amid a drought of new projects and India's general elections.

Analysts expect cement demand to recover in the second half of fiscal year 2026, as demand spurred by tax cuts trickles in.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
Estimates (next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Price/Sales
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
No. of analysts
Stock to price target**
Div yield (%)
Ambuja Cements
ABUJ.NS
32.24
14.61
3.04
18.86
11.19
Buy
38
0.86
0.35
UltraTech Cement
ULTC.NS
34.11
18.86
3.65
13.09
34.24
Buy
37
0.87
0.65
Shree Cement
SHCM.NS
46.25
17.60
4.60
10.62
34.28
Hold
21
0.92
0.55
ACC
ACC.NS
16.96
9.22
1.34
10.14
0.36
Buy
20
0.88
0.4

* The mean of analyst 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

JULY-SEPTEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees

ABUJ Q2 https://tmsnrt.rs/49u1I7a

 (Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and  Subhranshu Sahu)

 ((Hritam.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @MukherjeeHritam;))