Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL) has reported a net profit of Rs 114.31 crore in FY11 against that of Rs 111.84 crore in FY10.  The company achieved Net External Sales (excluding Excise Duty) of Rs 1,423.17 crore for the year ended 31st March, 2011 as against Rs 1,278.08 crore in the previous year despite keen competition and market volatility, said Guruprasad Mohapatra, managing director, GACL.  For the quarter ended March 31, 2011, GACL achieved net sales of Rs 400.72 crore as against Rs  306.22 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Mohapatra stated that the company has achieved the total production (which includes inter unit consumption) to 15,26,107 MT during the year as against 15,23,029 MT in the previous year. The capacity utilization of the majority of the plants at Baroda and Dahej complexes achieved at cent percent or more during the year. The first three quarters of the year saw severe industry slowdown and erosion in price realization for Caustic Soda Group and Caustic Potash Group products impacting performance and growth. Lately, with the improvement in the domestic as well as Global Chlor-Alkali scenario, the realizations have scaled up during Q-4 giving Profit Before Tax of Rs 65.03 crore as against aggregate Profit Before Tax of Rs 62.09 crore in the first three quarters of the financial year 2010-11.

During the year, the company could control the rising operating costs through cost control measures and pricing review consistently. These measures enabled company to achieve the Gross Profit of Rs 279.85 crore for the year before Interest, depreciation, tax and exceptional items as compared to Gross Profit of Rs 290.19 crore in the previous year. He added that the company could generate cash profit of Rs 259.96 crore for the year despite adverse performance of the first three quarters, as against Rs 272.71 crore in the previous year. Profit Before Tax for the year is of Rs 127.12 crore as against Rs 146.27 crore in the previous year The Profit Before Tax for the quarter ended could significantly improve to Rs 65.03 crore as compared to Rs 35.72 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year mainly due to improvement in price realization of Caustic Soda Group products.

The Profit After Tax for the year has been achieved at R114.31 crore as against Rs 171.84 crore in the previous year. The Profit After Tax for the quarter ended on 31.03.2011 has been achieved at Rs 55.99 crore as against Rs 85.63 crore (which included exceptional item of Income tax provision written back of Rs 64.06 crore) in the corresponding quarter of previous year. As on 31.03.2011, the Debt : Equity Ratio stands at 0.15 : 1 as against 0.17 : 1. The Price Earning Ratio has also improved to 8.12 times as against 5.37 times as compared to previous year. Dr. Mohapatra further stated that during the F. Y. 2010-11, the company has commissioned 25 TPD Calcium Chloride Project at Vadodara complex and 45 TPD Stable Bleaching Powder Project at Dahej complex. He further informed that during the Financial Year 2011-12, the Company plans to commission the expansion of Hydrogen Peroxide unit in Dahej from 38 TPD (100% Basis) to 80 TPD (100% Basis), which would further improve the top line and bottom line of the Company.

Mohapatra, said that the company has already got three Projects registered with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Projects and has taken action for few more projects including Wind Mill projects to be registered during the Financial Yea 2011-12. GACL has registered a joint venture Company with Dow Europe GmbH to set up a 2,00,000 TPA Chloromethanes plant at Dahej with 50-50 equity partnership. The engineering activities of this project are going on at full stream. The Company's announced projects involving an investment of about Rs.2,600 crore are progressing as scheduled and are expected to go on stream by FY 2014-15.