India's Orient Cement posts lower Q1 profit as costs outpace demand

Orient Cement

01/08/2023 09:29

BENGALURU, August 1 (Reuters) - Indian cement maker Orient Cement  ORCE.NS  on Tuesday reported a lower profit for
the quarter ended June 30 as mounting costs outpaced strong demand. 
    Standalone net profit for the CK Birla Group's cement business slid to 370.3 million rupees ($4.50 million) in the
first quarter, compared to 374.2 million rupees a year ago. Total expenses rose more than 17% to 7.72 billion rupees.  
    For further earnings highlights, click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN39I0L1
    
KEY CONTEXT 

Indian cement manufacturers are trying to strike a balance between surging domestic demand buoyed by a push in
infrastructure spending and higher raw material and energy costs.  
    Profits for peers like Ultratech Cement  ULTC.NS , Shree Cement  SHCM.NS  and Adani-owned ACC  ACC.NS  rose on robust
domestic demand and volumes, while those at JK Lakshmi Cement  JKLC.NS  and Dalmia Bharat  DALB.NS  declined on higher
costs. 
    
    
PEER COMPARISON
    
                                      Valuation (next    Estimates (next 12           Analysts' sentiment         
                                         12 months)           months)                                             
                       RIC            PE      EV/EBITD  Revenue      Profit    Mean      # of      Stock to       Div yield
                                              A         growth       growth    rating*   analysts  price          (%)
                                                                                                   target**       
 Orient Cement Ltd      ORCE.NS        12.67      6.05     9.06       49.61    Buy              8      0.92            1.02
 JK Lakshmi Cement      JKLC.NS        12.80      7.19     11.05      32.77    Buy             11      0.82            0.82
 Ltd                                                                                                              
 ACC Ltd                ACC.NS         20.74     11.33     -6.73      38.32    Buy             29      0.95            0.46
 Shree Cement Ltd       SHCM.NS        39.01     18.98     12.53      45.78    Hold            17      1.01            0.41
  
* 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
    
APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE 
    
    
    
-- All data from Refinitiv

-- $1 = 82.2775 Indian rupees

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APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE    https://tmsnrt.rs/3YkaPQb
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
 ((Hritam.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @MukherjeeHritam;))