Shares of India Cements declined 4% on Monday, October 19, after the company’s second quarter results showed improvement in a challenging environment, and as investors await its parent company UltraTech Cement’s commentary.
The stock is down 25% ever since its previous quarter’s results.
India Cements reported a good set of earnings for the second quarter. Its operational efficiencies and increase in capacity utilization resulted in higher earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and profit after tax (PAT).
Its EBITDA increased ₹144.33 crore from ₹81.14 crore last year, while its PAT surged 341% to ₹38.82 crore from ₹8.81 crore in the year-ago period.
India Cements’ margins were at 12.6% compared to 15.3% in the previous quarter and 7.3% in the previous year. Its EBITDA/tonne was at ₹510 from ₹604 sequentially and 333 in the year-ago period.
Power and fuel increased 22% to ₹448.01 crore from ₹367 crore.
Its revenue increased 2% to ₹1,142.03 crore from last year’s ₹1,117.04 crore. Meanwhile its volumes were up 16.2% at 2.83 MT from 2.44 MT. Its volumes also increased 10% sequentially, reflecting improved demand trends in the South and asset ramp up.
Its realisation de-grew 1.3% from the previous quarter, which was in-line with estimates.
Other factors
- Higher fuel, operating deleverage and realisation decline dragged the company’s EBITDA/tonne by 15% sequentially.
- Renewable mix improved from 7.9% in the first quarter to 24.7% in the second quarter. It helped reduce power costs to some extent.
- Petcoke consumption declined significantly to 16% from 22% sequentially and from 57% in the year-ago period.
India Cements plans to add 3.10 MT Capacity By FY28
The company is looking at adding 3.10 MT of capacity by the financial year 2028, taking it from 14.5 MT to 17.6 MT.
The upgradation projects started across plants and are expected to continue in the third and fourth quarters.
On another note, the company’s net debt stood at ₹1,591 crore at the end of September 2026, compared to ₹1,540 crore in the June quarter and ₹1,271 crore in the March quarter.
Stock reaction
Shares of India Cements were trading 4.02% lower at ₹290.15 apiece at 10.12 am. The stock has declined 16% in the past month and is down 33.5% this year, so far.
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