Chairman reflects on tough period at UltraTech Cement's AGM

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of UltraTech Cement (Aditya Birla Group), opened the 20th Annual General Meeting on 12 August 2020, via video conferencing and reflected on the company's 1Q20-21 performance.

Mr Mangalam Birla said the company's annual report's theme this year was 'Tough times don’t last; tough companies do'. "And your company is as tough as it gets!" he added.

He announced that UltraTech's net sales in 1Q20-21 reached INR75.63bn (US$1.01bn), compared to INR112.29bn in the corresponding period of the previous year. Profit before interest, deprecation and tax reached INR23.53bn and normalised profit after tax was INR9.06bn.

Meanwhile, the overheads programme saw fixed costs cut by 21 per cent YoY. Net debt was reduced by INR22.09bn in 1QFY21.

A total capex outlay of INR15bn was reached, including the installation  of a 66MW WHR system, 1.2Mta brownfield expansion projects in West Bengal and Bihar, pending work for Phase 2 of the Bara grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh, coal block development and new ready-mix plants.

Highlights in FY19-20 included the acquisition of Century Textiles and Industries Ltd with a capacity of 14.6Mta, taking UltraTech’s cement capacity to 114.8Mta.

The company's WHRS capacity has also reached 118MW in FY20 and solar and wind capacity has exceeded 95MW compared to none three years ago.