India Cements' quarterly loss narrows on cost-control measures

India Cements

20/05/2024 07:35

May 20 (Reuters) - India Cements  ICMN.NS  reported on Monday a narrower loss in the fourth quarter, as a
tighter lid on costs helped cushion the impact from a revenue drop amid lower cement prices. 
    The South India-focused cement firm's losses came in at 293.3 million rupees ($3.5 million) for the January-March
period, compared with a loss of 2.18 billion rupees last year. This is the company's fifth consecutive loss-making
quarter. 
    Lower fuel and transport costs helped drop total expenses in the reported quarter by 18%, outpacing a 14.7% revenue
slump after cement prices fell to two-year lows. 
       
KEY CONTEXT    
Cement prices fell 5% sequentially in the January-March period, as makers unveiled discounts to meet fiscal year-end
volume targets and stave off tough competition. 
    Lower prices-led volumes push had helped larger peers such as ACC  ACC.NS  and UltraTech Cement  ULTC.NS  to report
better-than-expected profit and Dalmia Bharat  DALB.NS  to post a smaller-than-expected profit fall. 
    
    PEER COMPARISON 
    
                                    Valuation (next 12 months)    Estimates (next 12         Analysts' sentiment
                                                                 months)               
                       RIC         PE        EV/EBITDA           Revenue growth (%)    Mean      # of      Stock to
                                                                                       rating*   analysts  price
                                                                                                           target**
 India Cements Ltd      ICMN.NS       35.80               14.05         10.78          SELL             5      1.19
 JK Lakshmi Cement      JKLC.NS       15.28                7.93         11.79          BUY             11      0.82
 Ltd                                                                                                       
 Ramco Cements          TRCE.NS       26.50               11.39         10.65          HOLD            20      0.78
 Limited                                                                                                   
 Nuvoco Vistas          NUVO.NS       35.25                8.37          6.00          BUY             18      0.81
 Corporation Ltd                                                                                           
 * Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the
PT
    
    JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE 
    

    
    -- All data from LSEG
    -- $1 = 83.2640 Indian rupees

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JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE    https://tmsnrt.rs/4ajYU9y
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 (Reporting by Anisha Ajith and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((anisha.ajith@thomsonreuters.com;))