Agriculture major EID Parry Q4 net profit up 87.23pc

Agriculture major EID Parry Wednesday posted an 87.23 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 158.06 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19 on strong sales. Net profit stood at Rs 84.42 crore in the same quarter of the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The board has approved the issue of Non-Convertible Debentures on a private placement basis for an amount not exceeding Rs 300 crore during the 2019-20 fiscal subject to the approval of the shareholders, it said. Its income increased to Rs 3,671.40 crore on a consolidated basis during the January-March period of 2018-19 from Rs 3,378.43 crore in the previous year.

For the entire 2018-19 fiscal, EID Parry said net profit dropped by 40 per cent to Rs 153.49 crore from Rs 255.82 crore in the previous financial year. The company's income rose to Rs 16,517.82 crore from Rs 15,610.99 crore in the said period.

Commenting on the performance, EID Parry Managing Director S Suresh said, "The performance of the company for the year was largely impacted due to the depressed sugar selling price. This is on account of demand-supply mismatch in the sugar market caused due to huge sugar production in the country for sugar season 2018-19." An increase of Rs 2 per kg in the minimum selling price helped the company realise marginal profits during the last quarter of 2018-19. Production for the year has been in line with the last year. The company exported 46,000 tonnes under Minimum Indicative Export Quota (MIEQ), he said.

Tamil Nadu continues to reel under drought conditions for the last two years. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had normal monsoon during the year and accordingly the cane availability for the next sugar season are expected to be in line with the current season, he added. Suresh said that the company had installed a back-end refinery in Haliyal, Karnataka where there is better cane availability and recovery is also higher.

The Nutraceuticals division had a muted performance due to pricing pressure and intense competition in the overseas market, he added. EID Parry's business focus is in areas of sugar, crop protection, co-generation, distillery, bio-pesticides, and nutraceuticals.

(With inputs from agencies.)