Dalmia Bharat falls 7% after 47.5% decline in Q4 PAT, 7.8% fall in EBITDA

Shares of Dalmia Bharat fell over 7% on Thursday after the company reported a 47.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline in its fourth quarter net profit at ₹320 crore.

Dalmia Bharat is the fourth-largest cement manufacturing company in India by installed capacity with a manufacturing presence spread across 10 states and 15 manufacturing units. Sales volume for the quarter rose 18.5% to 8.8 million tonnes (MnT). Operating revenue rose 10% YoY to ₹4,307 crore during the quarter while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 7.8% to ₹654 crore.

For the fiscal year 2024, sales volume increased 11.8% YoY to 28.8 million tonnes. Operating revenue increased 8.4% to ₹14,691 crore while EBITDA rose 13.4% to ₹2,639 crore. Net profit for the entire fiscal year fell 20.9% to ₹853 crore.

During the year, the company’s installed cement capacity increased by 15.6% YoY to 44.6 MnT. Its net debt to EBITDA ratio fell to 0.18x from 0.28x a year ago.

Dharmender Tuteja, Chief Financial Officer at Dalmia Bharat said an unexpected drop in cement prices led to EBITDA erosion during the quarter with the EBITDA margin declining from 18.1% in Q4FY23 to 15.2% in Q4FY24. “During the ensuing year, we will continue to focus on our levers of long-term cost savings including renewable energy, operationalising our captive coal mines, digitisation of supply chain and investing in our brand,” he said.

The board has recommended a final dividend of ₹5 per share for the fiscal year 2024.

During the quarter, the company entered into a share purchase agreement, deed of accession and power purchase agreement, to acquire 18.13% of O2 Renewable Energy V to source wind power as a captive consumer for a capacity of up to 11 megawatts (MW).

Shares of the company declined by nearly 23% since the beginning of the year. The stock has lost over 5% in the last one year.